


Dark Fusion

by KuriMaster13



Series: Arc-Ved Protagonists [4]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-26
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:14:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 43,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27723328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KuriMaster13/pseuds/KuriMaster13
Summary: "Don't think that boat will keep them safe. Once I'm done with you, we'll catch that boat and make sure you're all put right back here."..."That's if, you win, and if you can find the boat again, the latter is unlikely since we took measures to prevent that from happening until were long gone, and the former won't happen because I won't loose."Previously posted on fanfic.net.
Series: Arc-Ved Protagonists [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2024518
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	1. Possesed Toys

Duel Academy, a place where one is taught how to duel and become a master at the mechanic of Fusion summoning, a place where many of the duelists are helping with a large multi-dimensional project, a place spear headed by a calm and calculating professor that won't stop at anything in order to achieve the planned Utopia. A place where all the students are fiercely loyal to the cause of the dimension fusing.... well, most of them anyhow.

It was a dark knight, clouds covering up all of the stars so only the Moon shown, and even that was half way covered in shadow. Down by the docks of the Island where the academy stood, there was one moderately sized boat about to go off without clearance or permission from anyone. A couple kids both in red blazers were untieing the last ropes keeping the boat at the shore. “Whew, that should do it.” one of them said, who had brown eyes and two different shades of brown for hair colors. He then looked toward his shorter friend, with Grey eyes, glasses and blue hair, saying “So, how about we blow this pop stand and try to figure out where Alexis went? I'm sure Bastion and the others should have everything prepared inside now.”

The shorter guy shrugged, saying, “Hey, might as well, since we already went this far to get out. I just hope we don't run into my brother anytime soon now, he is going to be so mad at me once he hears about this.”

“Oh, is that so?” Came a voice from behind the boys, causing them to turn to see another short teen with blue hair, a blue blazer and a lollypop sticking out of his mouth. “Well, that's a shame then, cause he is still going to be mad and your not going anywhere.”

“What the, Sora?” The kid with the glasses asked. “What are you doing here?”

“Somebody set off the silent alarm.” The new boy, Sora, answered, “and I was asked to help rope in the troublemakers.”

“Aww, shoot.” The tall kid stated, “Syrus, get in the boat and tell everyone to go now. Don't wait for me.”

The short kid next to him, Syrus, looked at him saying, “Jaden, what are you going to do?”

“I'll keep him busy.” The brown eyed one, Jaden, said, “Someone's got to stop him from trailing us since he's probably already releasing a signal telling everyone on the island where we are.”

“But then how are you going to-”

“I'll figure it out later, just go.” Jaden insisted.

Syrus sighed saying, “OK, then.” as he then got on to the boat and a hit a button to make the ramp go up.

“Aww, what do you know,” Sora teased, “your sacrificing yourself so your friends can go.” his face then turned a little nasty, “You know making friends here involves breaking a few rules right?”

“Part 1 of what convinced me to leave this island.” Jaden retorted, “If you had a any friends yourself, you would see what I mean.” He then activated his duel disk, ready to duel to get his friends out safely.

“Don't think that boat will keep them safe.” Sora said, activating his duel disk as well. “Once I'm done with you, we'll catch that boat and make sure you're all put right back here.”

Jaden then smirked, saying “That's if, you win, and if you can find the boat again, the latter is unlikely since we took measures to prevent that from happening until were long gone, and the former won't happen because I won't loose.”

“We'll see about that.” Sora stated.

“Better get your game on, then.” Jaden replied, “It will make thing just that little bit more fun for me.”

**DUEL!**

**(Note: Duel uses Pre-link format rules)**

“I'll start things off,” Jaden said looking down at his hand, “I'll set a monster in defense mode and end my turn.”

“Then it is my turn.” Sora declared, drawing a card, “I'll activate 'Polymerization'!” He then declared, revealing the card.

“Guess your not wasting any time then.” Jaden noted.

“I'll now fuse the 'Fluffal Bear' and the 'Edge Imp Sabres' in my hand together.” Sora declared as a stuffed bear and demonic pair of scissors appeared next to him before going into a fusion vortex. Sora then chanted, “ _Claws of the demon_ _!_ _Fangs of the beast_ _! Become one and reveal a new form and power! Fusion Summon! Appear, horrifying beast that shreds everything! Frightfur_ _Bear_ _!_ ” emerging from the vortex was what appeared to have been the bear from before but now cut up into pieces and attached to several scissors throwout it's joints.

**Frightfur Bear...** **Attribute:Dark, Type:Fiend, Level:6, ATK:2200 DEF:1800**

“Frightfur Bear, take out that set monster.” Sora commanded as the monster did just that, revealing the set monster to be a masked man, with a bird-like costume.

**Elemental HERO Avian... Attribute:Wind, Type:Warrior, Level:3, ATK:1000 DEF:1000**

“Sorry Avian.” Jaden muttered as his monster got destroyed.

“And when 'Frightfur Bear' destroys a monster,” Sora continued, “He equips it to himself to gain a power boost.” As he said that, the destroyed monster reformed trapped in the Bear's hand, before getting eaten by the Toy as said toy got larger.

**Frightfur Bear... ATK:2200 – > 3200**

“Now I'll set one card and end my turn.” Sora declared, then saying, “So Jaden, still think you can stand up to me, my monster will only grow in strength and I'm pretty sure there ain't a hero in your deck that can stand up to it the way it is already.”

“Oh, I got plenty of heroes that can stand up to it no matter how strong it gets.” He then turned behind him to see the boat already moving away, with a few heads looking out, including Syrus's. He gave his friends a thumbs up then turned back to Sora saying, “And your about to meet some right now. It's my turn, I draw!” He declared drawing a card, and when he saw what he drew, he smirked, eyes momentarily glowing gold.

“I'll activate a continuous spell card, 'Supreme Command'!” Jaden declared, putting the drawn card onto his duel disk. “With this card, once per turn, I can add a 'Dark Fusion' from my deck or graveyard to my hand.”

“Wait, 'Dark Fusion'?” Sora repeated surprised, “That can only be used to fusion summon Fiend-type monsters, but your Heroes can't fuse into any fiend types.”

“Is that so?” Jaden quipped, as he added the mentioned spell card to his hand. “Well, I hate to disappoint, but my Heroes can create all sorts of things, and they all have dark sides as well, something this academy of yours brought out in them.” He then grabbed another card from his hand saying, “And now I'll summon out my 'Evil HERO Dark Prism'!” As he said that, a Warrior made completely out of Darkened Prisms appeared on his field.

**Evil HERO Dark Prism... Attribute:Dark, Type:Warrior, Level:4, ATK:1700 DEF:1100**

“Evil Hero!?” Sora repeated surprised, he never heard of those cards before.

“I activate Dark Prism's special ability.” Jaden declared, “Now by sending any monster from my Deck to the graveyard, like my 'Elemental HERO Clayman', I can have Dark Prism's name be treated as that monster's name when it is being used as Fusion Material for a fiend type fusion monster.”

Sora gritted his teeth, seeing where this was going.

“Sure if Dark Prism is still out during my end phase, Clayman will be banished, but that isn't going to matter because now I'll activate 'Dark Fusion', to Fuse the 'Elemental HERO Bubbleman' in my hand with my Dark Prism, treating the latter as Clayman.” As he said that, the Evil Hero seemed to transform into a large brown Golem like monster with a red head as another man decked out in bubble themed gadgets appeared next to him before both going into a darkened fusion vortex as Jaden chanted, “ _Hero with incredible defense, Hero with gadgetry mastery, become one as your inner darkness manifests! Dark Fusion! Bury them all! Evil HERO Mudslide!_ ” Emerging from the fusion vortex in defense mode, was an even larger Golem, with a blue head and semi melted arms.

**Evil HERO Mudslide... Attribute:Earth, Type:Fiend, Level:6, ATK:1900 DEF:3000**

“Mudslide's special ability allows him to attack while in defense position.” Jaden states, “And when he dose so, he can use his defense points for damage calculation instead of his attack points.”

“Nice effect.” Sora states, “But with only 3000 defense points, that's not enough to get over my Bear's 3200 attack points.”

“Don't need to.” Jaden said simply “Because your monster is in attack mode, Mudslide's other effect lets me force it into using it's defense points as well for damage calculation.”

“Say what!?” Sora asked surprised.

Jaden's eyes glowed gold again as he gave his answer, “Go Mudslide! Attack 'Frightfur Bear'. Suffocation Crush!” The defense mode fusion then raised it's semi-liquid hands, that then stretched out toward Sora's bear, seemingly growing endlessly as it wrapped around the entire monster. Then a crunch was heard as the hands went back to the Evil Hero, all that was left of Sora's monster was golden dust.

**Sora's Life points: 8000 - > 6800**

“So, think you can make your next murder toy a bit more of a threat?” Jaden taunted, “Cause like I said, if you don't get your game on soon this won't be any fun for me. Anyway I end my turn.”

“I'll show you.” Sora said threateningly, “I draw! At this moment I activate my face down card, 'Fusion Reserve', with this card, I can add a fusion material monster from my deck to my hand, and recover the 'Polymerization' in my graveyard.”

“Better grab a good one then.” Jaden replied.

Sora gritted his teeth “I'll add and summon my my 'Edge Imp Saw'!” As he said that a circular demonic saw appeared on his field, spinning around ready for some action.

**Edge Imp Saw... Attribute:Dark, Type:Fiend, Level:3, ATK:500 DEF:1000**

“When 'Edge Imp Saw' is normal summoned, I can activate it's special ability by discarding one 'Fluffal' card from my hand, like 'Fluffal Wings', then I can draw 2 cards and put and one card in my hand to the top or bottom of my deck.” Sora explained, before smirking as he saw what cards he got. “And now, I'll activate my 'Polymerization' to fuse my 'Edge Imp Saw' with the 'Fluffal Leo' in my hand.” As he said that, the image of a stuffed lion toy appeared next to the saw, as the two then both went into a new fusion vortex as Sora chanted, “ _Steel blades possessed by demons_ _. Become one with the_ _fanged beast_ _, and show us a new form and power! Fusion Summon! Show yourself! King of the hundred beasts that tears everything to pieces! Frightfur_ _Leo_ _!_ ” Coming from the fusion vortex stood a new monster that simply appeared to be the Lion toy from before, but cut into pieces and having the saws attached to it in numerous different ways.

**Frightfur Leo... Attribute:Dark, Type:Fiend, Level:7, ATK:2400 DEF:2000**

“I activate Leo's effect.” Sora then declares, “Once per turn, by giving up his privilege to attack you directly this turn, I can destroy any monster you control and inflict damage equal to it's original attack points.” As he said that, several saws shot out of his fusion monster, cutting Mudslide into pieces that then dispersed into golden light.

**Jaden's Life points: 8000 - > 6100**

“Thanks to the effect of 'Supreme Command',” Jaden cut in, “When an 'Evil HERO' fusion monster is destroyed, I can take one of the monsters used for it's fusion summon out of my graveyard and add it to my hand. I bring back, Dark Prism.”

Sora widened his eyes saying, “And with it's effect, you can use it for the summon of almost any hero you need.”

“Yep.” Jaden confirmed.

“How did you figure out that combo?” Sora asked, “your at the lowest class in the whole school.”

“Just because I prefer to wear red doesn't mean I can't compete with those in blue.” Jaden answered, “Besides there can be some advantages to everyone thinking you suck when you don't.”

“Grr, I end my turn.” Sora stated.

“Then it's My turn, I draw!” Jaden replied, drawing a card, “First up, I use the other effect of 'Supreme Command' to add a 'Dark Fusion' to my hand. Then I'll play 'Pot of Greed' to draw two more cards.” Jaden declared drawing the cards. He then saw what he drew and smirked, eyes giving off another golden glow while at it. “I'll now activate 'Reinforcement of the Army', with this card, I can add any level 4 or lower Warrior monster to my hand, in this case I'll grab my 'Elemental HERO Sparkman'.” he said revealing the card, “And now, I'll summon my Dark Prism back to the field, and use it's effect to send the 'Evil HERO Malicious Edge' to the graveyard.” As he said that, the set of tinted Prism's appeared on his field yet again before changing it's appearance to resemble the dispatched Evil HERO. “And now I'll use 'Dark Fusion' to fuse the Dark Prism turned Malicious Edge with the Sparkman in my hand.” He then started a chant as Sparkman appeared and went into a darkened fusion vortex with the monster already on Jaden's field, “ _Merciless hunter, take on the powers of the electrical hero and eliminate those who stand before you! Go Forth! Dark Fusion! Evil HERO Thunder Edge!”_ A new monster came out of the fusion vortex, sporting a look of weaponized armor with Electricity shooting off around it.

**Evil HERO Thunder Edge... Attribute:Earth, Type:Fiend, Level:8, ATK:2600 DEF:2300**

“Thunder Edge! Destroy that overgrown plushy!” Jaden commanded, “Lightning Slash!” The new monster did as it was told, releasing a blade arcing with electricity, that then went out and cut the Frightfur monster in two effortlessly, making it explode.

**Sora's Life points: 6800 - > 6600**

“And now I'll throw down one single face down and call it a turn.” Jaden said while setting a card.

“It's my turn.” Sora said, drawing a card, “I activate the continuous spell card, 'Toy Vendor'! Now by discarding one card, I can draw a new card and show it, if it is a Fluffal monster, I summon it, otherwise, I send it to the graveyard.”

“Betting on a good top deck?” Jaden said, “Sure, go ahead, tends to work out for me a lot, so maybe you'll get something good.”

“I draw.” Sora declared, drawing a new card, but then grit his teeth at what he saw, “My draw was 'Edge Imp Tomahawk', since it is not a 'Fluffal' monster, I have to discard it.”

“Aw, that's too bad.” Jaden stated, “and here I was hoping you'd get something good. It would make things more interesting for me.”

“I'm not done yet.” Sora stated, “I activate the effect of my 'Fluffal Wings' in my graveyard, by banishing this and one Fluffal monster in my graveyard, like my Bear while I have 'Toy Vendor' I can draw one card.”

“Oh, so you have more draw power then?” Jaden quipped “Good, you'll need it.”

“Oh, it is more then just one card,” Sora stated, while drawing his card, “'Fluffal Wing' also lets me send 'Toy Vendor' to the graveyard to get another draw off of that, and when 'Toy Vendor' hits the graveyard, I can get any Fluffal card added to my hand, like my 'Fluffal Sheep'.”

“Bring it on.” Jaden said with a smile.

“I'll play, the spell card 'Raigeki'!” Sora declared, “So your monster is going down!”

“I don't think so, reverse card open!” Jaden countered, “'Supreme Power'! While this card is out, monsters summoned by 'Dark Fusion' can't be destroyed by card effects.” As he said that, a bolt of Lightning that came from Sora's spell card came down on Jaden's fusion monster, but Thunder Edge didn't seemed fazed at all by the bolt, it fact it didn't even seem like he noticed.

Sora grit his teeth. “I activate 'Polymerization'!” He then declared as a Fusion Vortex appeared behind him, “And with it I'll fuse the 'Edge Imp Chain' and the 'Fluffal Sheep' in my hand together!” A stuffed sheep toy and set of Demonic chains appeared in front of him before going inside the vortex as he chanted “ _Chain of destruction, wooled warrior,_ _Become one and reveal a new form and power!_ _Fusion Summon! Reveal yourself! Chained beast that binds everything! Frightfur Sheep!_ ” Coming out of this fusion vortex was a giant stuffed sheep toy, but it looked like it was torn open and put back together with chains, with even several extra objects attached to it through the chains.

**Frightfur Sheep... Attribute:Dark, Type:Fiend, Level:5, ATK:2000 DEF:2000**

“Defense mode?” Jaden said once he noticed the card's position, “Don't tell me that you don't have anything left to face me, now do you?”

“Oh, I got plenty.” Sora stated, “When 'Edge Imp Chain' is sent from my hand or Field to the graveyard, I can add one Frightfur spell or trap from my deck to my hand, I add 'Designer Frightfur'. Now I'll set two cards face down.” He concluded, setting the rest of his hand.

“The it's my go again.” Jaden said, drawing a card, “And I'll use 'Supreme Command' again to add a 'Dark Fusion' to my hand.” He then saw the card he drew and smiled, eyes going gold once more, “I'll now activate 'The Warrior Returning Alive', with this card, I can take any Warrior in my Graveyard, like my good pal 'Elemental HERO Avian' and get him back in my hand.” He then said as the Hero that fell on Sora's first turn came back to his hand. “And with 'Dark Fusion', I can merge him with my 'Elemental HERO Burstinatrix' that is also here in my hand.” The forms of the two heroes appeared beside Jaden as a darkened fusion vortex appeared behind him. The Bird themed Hero and the woman is a skin tight red outfit then went into the Vortex as Jaden chanted, “ _Hero of the Skies, hero of fiery passion, unite as your dark anger arises! Go, Dark Fusion! Rise up! Evil HERO Inferno Wing!_ ” Coming out of this vortex was a woman with green hair, a visor, purple angel wings, and fire all around her.

**Evil HERO Inferno Wing... Attribute:Fire, Type:Fiend, Level:6, ATK:2100 DEF:1200**

“Sorry if you thought that, putting that Sheep of yours in defense mode would spare you of any damage.” Jaden stated, “But both of these heroes have a piercing effect to back them up. Go get em, Inferno Wing, Inferno Blast!”

“Not so fast, I activate- huh?” Sora began but cut himself off, he hit the button on his duel disk to activate his face down 'Punch in the Box', but it wouldn't activate.

“Sorry,” Jaden said, “Guess I forgot to mention 'Supreme Power's other effect, namely that you can't activate card effects in response to the attacks of my Evil HERO monsters.” As he stated that Inferno Wing gathered a bundle of fire up in her hands, and launched it toward the Frightfur monster, destroying it.

**Sora's Life points: 6600 - > 6500**

“No matter,” Sora stated “I still have 'Frightfur Sheep's effect, since it activates once destroyed, your Trap dose nothing to stop it.”

“True,” Jaden admitted, “But Inferno Wing also gets off her effect from destroying your sheep, allowing her to do effect damage equal to either your monsters attack points or defense points, not that it really matters which one it is in this case as there the same. So Inferno Wing pile on more damage! Hell Back Fire!” The fiend type complied, launching a title wave of fire at Sora, dealing heavy damage and making him feel like he was burning up, without actually burning him.

**Sora's Life points: 6500 - > 4500**

“Now I'll use my Sheep's effect.” Sora stated between a couple gasps for air, that fire seemed suffocating, “Once Per turn, when it is destroyed by battle or an opponent's effect, It resurrects, with an extra 800 attack points!” As he said that, the demented Toy Sheep appeared once more slightly bigger then before.

**Frightfur Sheep... ATK:2000 - > 2800**

“That's fine.” Jaden said, catching Sora off guard, “After all, it can only work once per turn, so during Main phase 2, it has nothing to protect itself from Thunder Edge's effect.'”

Sora blinked, “It can do more then piercing?”

“I'm kinda surprised you have to ask, after all most of my other cards had multiple effects.” Jaden replied, “As for 'Thunder Edge', it has an effect that lets it destroy any face-up monster you control, once per turn, While there is at least one other HERO monster on the field.”

Sora gasped once he heard that, realizing that Jaden knew about 'Frightfur Sheep's effect from the start, and planned his turn out like this so he couldn't get a stronger monster out on board.

“Now, Thunder Edge, lets get that toy off of the shelves shall we,” Jaden declared “Dark Lightning!” As he said that, The older fusion monster fired a black bolt of lightning out at the sheep, making it spark and explode.

“And I think I'll call it a turn at that.” Jaden concluded.

At that time, a spot line shown on Jaden, and a voice called out, “Halt! Leaving the Island without permission is prohibited!”

“Bout time you got here.” Jaden commented as he looked to where the voice and spotlight came from, seeing a few teachers while some Juvenile officers and a few other students, (all in blue, probably asked to help out like Sora) came up behind Sora, readying there Duel disks. “I was just a turn away from winning this Duel.”

A few of the students were just about to activate there Duel disks when Sora said “Don't.” When a few of them gave him looks, that he didn't need to see to know they were giving it to him, he followed up saying, “I want to finish him. He'll pay for what he said.”

Jaden raised an eyebrow, “Which comment did I say? Was it the one about you not having any friends? or did my statement about the dorms offend you in some way? Or some other thing?” He then looked behind him and saw that the boat was nowhere in sight, “Or are you just upset that I was able to stop you from stopping my friends from escaping so you could brag and say you stopped the whole thing by yourself.” He then looked back at Sora and shrugged saying, “Aw well, doesn't really matter, I'm still going to win this duel, and bust out of here afterward, I don't need a boat to get out, I only got one for my friends.”

“Shut Up! It's My Turn! I draw!” Sora declared, drawing a card. He then saw what he drew and a demented grin appeared on his face. “I activate, 'Frightfur Fusion'! With this, I can take the Frightfur Bear, Leo and Sheep in my graveyard and banish them for a fusion summon!” The three fusion monsters he used earlier in the duel appeared next to him as a giant fusion portal appeared behind him. The material monsters then got sucked into the portal as Sora chanted, “ _Unusual plaything possessed by demons! Root out and destroy the plebeians who dare rebel against you! Fusion Summon! Come forth and appear, chimeric fusion of all toys! Frightfur_ _Chimera_ _!_ ” coming out of this vortex was a rather unusual creature, made out of torn up toys and machine parts, this creature had 3 heads, one being the head of 'Fluffal Bear', and 4 anvils for feet...... Oh, and it was about as large as a skyscraper.

**Frightfur Chimera... Attribute:Dark, Type:Fiend, Level:8, ATK:2800 DEF:2000**

“Chimera, attack 'Thunder Edge'!” Sora declared “Lets teach him a lesson he won't forget!” As he said that, one of the heads of the chimera opened up, launching a rocket at the targeted monster, causing it to disappear in an explosion.

**Jaden's Life points: 6100 - > 5900**

“Chimera's effect activates!” Sora continued, “When it destroys a monster in battle, I can summon it to my field, and for each of your monsters out on my field, he gains 300 attack points.”

“Is that so...” Jaden began, as he began to laugh a bit “It's a shame you won't be getting my monster then.”

“What do you-” Sora began only to stop a he saw that the destroyed Hero wasn't reviving under his control. “Wait, why isn't he reviving?”

Jaden then said, as his laughter become more obvious “It's because he CAN'T.” Jaden then followed up on that saying, “Looks like I'm the one really teaching you something today, namely the fact that Evil HERO fusion monsters are all Nomi-monsters, they can only be summoned through one specific method, namely a Dark Fusion card. No other method will work, even if they were summoned properly earlier in the duel.”

“They have that restriction?” Sora asked, realizing that that would give them the access to their several powerful effects if they were harder to summon.

“Well, Yeah.” Jaden stated, still laughing, “Kinda why I kept using 'Supreme Command' to get my 'Dark Fusion's... which, by the way, is also adding one of Thunder edge's fusion materials back to my hand at this time. I never thought my cards being more restrictive would have helped me in a duel.” He then started to laugh some more.

“Quit Laughing!” Sora demanded.

Jaden then started to calm down some saying, “OK fine, but how can anyone deny that it is at least a little amusing that a clause that makes a card inherently worse, even if it is only for balancing, would have actually helped it's user in a duel.”

“Just take your turn already, I end!” Sora practically shouted.

“Oh, I'll be taking more then just my turn.” He stated “I'll be taking the win as well. My Draw!” He then drew a card, but didn't bother to look at it saying, “First up, I'll use Supreme Command' to add a 'Dark Fusion' from my graveyard to my hand.”

“And Now you'll summon Dark Prism to use it's effect for another Fusion summon, I know.” Sora replied.

“If Dark Prism was the card I added back last turn, then Yes, that is what I would do.” Jaden replied, “But that's not who I brought back.”

“So, wait, you got back Sparkman then? Why?” Sora asked.

Jaden smiled saying, “Because he is the one I need. I activate 'Dark Fusion' to fuse my 'Elemental HERO Sparkman' in my hand with my 'Evil HERO Inferno Wing'.” As he said that, the hero from before appeared yet again on his field, going into a darkened fusion vortex with the Evil Hero monster.

Sora's eyes widened when he saw this, he knew this meant something big, but he was also shocked as he finally noticed that Jaden's eyes were glowing gold. This time staying that way instead of momentary flashes.

“ _Corrupted Wingman,_ ” Jaden began chanting, “ _Take on the powers of the electrical Hero, to incinerate all who dare stand in your way of Justice._ ” The glowing in his eyes got brighter, allowing everyone to see it as he continued. “ _Dark Fusion! Rise Up! Evil HERO Blazing Inferno Wing!_ ” Coming out of this vortex seemed to be the same Inferno Wing from before, only her wings now seemed to be made of black fire, electricity was dancing all around her, and all fire around her was pure white.

**Evil HERO Blazing Inferno Wing... Attribute:Light, Type:Fiend, Level:8, ATK:2500 DEF:2100**

“It-It's not Strong enough to beet my Chimera.” Sora stated, a little creeped out by Jaden's glowing gold eyes.

“You think so?” Jaden replied, “Sorry, but I wouldn't have brought her out if she wouldn't do better then her base counterpart. Blazing Inferno Wing gains 300 Attack points for every 'HERO' monster in my graveyard, and between all my Elemental and Evil HEROs, that's 3000 extra attack points.”

“Saw What!?” Sora asked widening her eyes, before checking his duel disk to see the monster's attack value.

**Evil HERO Blazing Inferno Wing... ATK:2500 - > 5500**

“Everyone, Drop into the Duel, Sora needs the help.” an Instructor called.

“Doesn't matter.” Jaden replied, “I'm out of here anyway. I just want to finish up this turn. Inferno Wing, attack 'Frightfur Chimera'! Ultimate Inferno Blast!” The new Hero did as commanded, creating a huge ball of white fire that then got launched toward the Chimera, vaporizing it into ash.

**Sora's Life points: 4500 - > 1800**

“Oh, and before you think your safe.” Jaden said, “Inferno Wing still has all her previous abilities as well, so your now taking Damage equal to your Chimera's 2800 attack points.”

“That means... I loose.” Sora realized, a look of Horror on his face.

“Gotcha,” Jaden said, “Inferno Wing! End this! Flaming Eternity!” Inferno Wing did as Commanded, turning her flaming wings into black flaming tentacles that shot out everywhere knocking Sora back while giving him a feeling of being burned from the inside out, and also getting everyone to back away and shield themselves, taking there focus off of Jaden. When it ended and everyone looked back at the duel site, Sora was on the ground, passed out, and Jaden was gone.

**Sora's Life points: 1800 - > 0**

**Line break**

Syrus was pacing in the surprisingly big boat back and forth, back and forth, to worried to notice that the floorboards were creaking as he passed . Something that got another teen with blue hair and a blue and white blazer to ask “Oi, Syrus, would you stop pacing for a minute or two? The floor boards creak and it is starting to give he a headache.”

“Oh, sorry about that Jesse.” Syrus apologized, “I'm just really worried about Jaden, you know?”

“Yeah, I know, we all are.” Jesse replied, “How can we not since he stayed behind to make sure we get off that island.”

“Think maybe we should double back for him?” Syrus asked.

“No,” Jesse answered “if we did. We would undo all the effort we put into making the boat untraceable to Academy sensors. Plus Jay wouldn't approve anyway if we get caught, and with probably the whole academy out there looking, turning back will just be begging for that to happen.”

Syrus sighed, “Yeah,” his face then scrunched into a confused look saying, “though I do find it weird that even without there sensors they still can't find a boat this big.” As he finished saying that, a loud _THUMP_ could be heard coming from the deck. “I should not have said that... or even thought it really.” Syrus immediately said afterward.

Jesse continued listening and, hearing nothing, said “I don't hear anything else, lets go check out what it was, it might not be Academia.”

“You think so?” Syrus asked, “Cause that would be nice if it wasn't.”

As the two went to the deck, meeting up with another teen in yellow, Bastion, along the way and saw what landed, there eyes widened.

“Jaden?” Syrus asked as he saw the brown eyed, double-brown haired teen, “How did you-” he couldn't get himself to finish the question.

“I got skills.” Jaden said smugly, Before looking confused and asking, “How'd I what?”

“Get off the Island, catch up to us, escape Academia.” Bastion was offering “Find us when Academia can't,” Then looking out and seeing no trace of the Academy forces around added, “Get away from them without being traced. Really any of them.”

“Oh, yeah, my answer applies to all of them, pretty much the same skill for all the situations listed in fact.” Jaden answered. “To bad they don't help me be any less likely to have been the one who triggered the silent alarm.”

Jesse laughed at that, “Yeah, you would do that to bail out when you wanted.”

“Do what?” Syrus asked confused, “What's the skill?”

Jaden yawned at this time, “Tell you in the morning, maybe after breakfast, I'm a little tried right now, I could use some bed time.”

Bastion sighed, “Only you would be able to sleep at a time like this... well you and Chazz that is, try not to disturb him when you get to the sleeping quarters by the way, you know how he is.”

“Got it.” Jaden replied as he walked off to the bedrooms. He was ready to get some rest and hopefully in the morning, they would be ready to get things set up for revealing just what Academia has been doing to the students that enroll.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so things got a little interesting when I went to do to GX section of Arc-Ved protagonists, as you may be able to tell here. One, unlike every other duel here so far, the AUed main character is not facing the Yu-boy from his dimension.  
> This is because a line Yuri said in the anime implied that he never lost a duel before he dueled Yuya, and since Yuri isn't really able to do any dueling after that point in the show, that means to uphold Pseduocontinuity, any duel I put Yuri into would have to end in him winning (or the duel getting interrupted or end in a draw, which doesn't meld well with the original idea of all of these being one-shots).  
> But lets face it... how many people honestly think Jaden would loose to Yuri? So instead, I split it up into 2. Yuri gets a separate duel in a separate one-shot against a different AUed GX character, and Jaden gets to duel Sora here.  
> And then I forgot to specify that this was a one-shot and people asked for more, allowing this "one-shot" to turn into a 5 chapter story.... guess a lot of people liked the use of Evil Heroes and wanted to see more of the small hints of the OG Supreme King.


	2. The Gladiator

In Academia, there was an emergency meeting being held. The School's Professor, Leo Akaba, was sitting on his 'throne' as several teachers were present to discuss what to do about the the recently escaped students.

“I don't see why we need to put extra thought towards these students.” one teacher, Mr. Cutter (or was it Solo?) , said. “Wouldn't they just be with the others that left us? We can catch them when we catch all those previous traitors.”

“It is very unlikely they will be with the others” Leo replied, “Do to the size of the Boat they took, it is clear that the trip they wanted to take was planned and will not be as short as the others who went on a whim.”

“I can find them.” One man replied, stepping forward, “I already saw there ship, and know how there strategies tend to work, I am certain I can find them and lead the Juvenile Officers to catch the whole lot of them.”

Leo thought about that for a second before saying, “I feel confident in your ability to find them, but catching them and out dueling them is going to be rather difficult, especially for Jaden Yuki, who skills in a duel have on record have shown to easily be in the upper percentage of any of our students, despite the dorm he chose to stay at. You may not be able to get him alone Sanders.”

The Man nodded, “In that case I shall bring in my best student to assist me.” he replied, “I assure you, they will not be able to get away once BB and I get on there trail.”

“Very well then.” Leo replied, “Any objections?” He then said turning to the other teachers, when no one said anything, Leo turned back to Sanders and said “Then I shall leave this to you.”

**Line Break**

On the Boat, Jaden was sleeping away soundly, not getting disturbed by anything... not even the two other residents in the room who were trying to wake him up for breakfast.

“Come on Sarge, chow time.” One rather muscular boy said as the other tried to tickle his nose with a feather, “If you don't get up, there won't be any left for you.”

“You know what?” The other said, putting the feather down, “let's just leave him more for us that way.”

“Oh, come on Chazz.” The first one said, “We got to get him up, if at the very least so he can explain how he caught back up to us.”

“He can always do it latter.” The second one, Chazz replied. “besides it not like we are in a duel against Acedemia right now, I want to go eat.”

Suddenly, Jaden's eyes opened up a bit as he mumbled, “Did I hear someone say 'Duel'?”

Chazz almost fell over upon hearing Jaden's voice, then turning back to the sleepy teenager, “How dose that wake you up, while me tickling your nose with a feather while Tryanno blows an AIR HORN in your ear not!?” he then said rather pissed.

“Was the air horn shouting out the word 'Duel' when you set it off?” Jaden replied, before yawning as Chazz had to get held back by Tryanno from yanking Jaden's head off. “By the way, what is it with the Getup?” He then asked upon noticing that the two in front of hi weren't in the Academia uniforms they had when they got on the boat. Tryanno Hasselbery, the muscular one, had on a Jurassic Park T-shirt instead of the Yellow uniform, while Chazz had a Black jacket on in place of the Blue uniform.

Chazz, still a little angry but mostly calmed down, replied saying “I figured that for defecting from Academia we probably shouldn't keep on wearing there uniforms, so I made sure there were plenty of clothes we could change into come morning so were not advertising that we were from Academia when we get off... Hasslebery you can let go now.”

“Huh, that's a good idea.” Jaden muttered as he looked down to see the red uniform he slept in, “Is there a red jacket available?”

Hasslebery gave Jaden a look, “You are going to get out of one Red outfit to get in another?”

Jaden shrugged, “What? I look good in red, part of the reason why I stayed in that dorm.”

Chazz rolled his eyes, “Yeah, we have one, get changed and meet us over for breakfast.” He said walking out.

“Breakfast sounds good.” Jaden commented, as he got out of the bed. Once he switched out of the Academia uniform and into a different red jacket, he walked to the kitchen when a wonderful smell of eggs and bacon hit his nostrils. “Oooo, something smells good.” He then stated as he walked into the kitchen.

“Is it possible for eggs and bacon to not smell good?” Syrus asked upon seeing Jaden enter, as he then put some bacon in his mouth. Instead of the red uniform he had last night he was wearing a yellow shirt with blue shorts and black sneakers.

“Ah, good to see you up Jaden.” Bastion replied, now wearing a white shirt himself as well as apparently cooking the bacon and eggs. “With how Chazz was when he got back here I couldn't be sure if you had gotten up like he said, or if he lied so he could start eating.”

“Whatever.” Chazz muttered as he shoved more scrambled eggs in his face.

Jaden then turned to Bastion asking “So, got any for me?”

Bastion smirked as he addressees a full plate next to him “Right here.”

“Awesome!” He remarked as he then grabbed the plate and went to the table they had set up, taking a seat.

“So Jay,” Syrus started once he swallowed the bacon he was on “Can you please explain how you did whatever you did to catch up to us without Academia following you.”

After taking another bite, he answered saying, “Sure, Okay, so first up, anyone here besides he Chazz and Jesse familiar with the concept of duel spirits?”

“Duel spirits?” Tryanno repeated, “Dose that have to do with the whole, duel-monster-cards-having-souls thing a few of the teachers went on about.”

“Yeah, that's about it.” Jesse said, as Jaden noticed the light blue shirt he was wearing.

“I brushed upon the topic a few times in my reading,” Bastion said as he walked up to the table with his own plate “but I never went into detail as there was little to no proof of there existence.” He then turned to Jaden saying “I'll take it I'll have to suspend some disbelief if this is where we are starting.”

“Yeah, that's a good bet.” Jaden started, “Because they are real, but only certain people are able to see them.”

“And your one of them?” Syrus asked.

“Yep.” Jaden replied, “But I'm not the only one here that can, Jesse and Chazz can see them as well.”

“And hear them” Chazz added, “Though I do wish couldn't hear mine.” he latter mumbled.

“Okay, I think I get where this is going.” Tryanno stated as Jaden took another bite, “Since they can't be seen or heard by most people, they serve as ultimate recon guys, giving you a heads up when people are on your trail, or telling you when the coast is clear. While any on board with us can shout really loud or something to make it easier for you to find us.”

“Well, that is one way they can help.” Jesse stated, “Kinda wish I thought of that to be honest. But for Jaden here, it can go a lot further then seeing and hearing them.”

“I'd imagine.” Bastion said as he looked back at Jaden. “With the exception of your duel disk, you had no device helping you out, no boat, no plane, but you got here with no problem, and without even getting wet either so you certainly didn't swim all the way here. So unless your duel disk is able to keep a hologram solid enough to use that the thole distance through, which I highly doubt as keeping it active can give Academia a signal to track, then you would need to do more then just see and hear duel spirits for them to help you get to us.”

“Yeah,” Jaden said sighing, “and here is where things get a little...” he paused for a second, “not so sure what the word is.” He then put a hand to his deck slot and pulled something out, “But here, take a look at my Extra deck.” he then said gently tossing the fusion monsters onto the table.

Chazz blinked at that, saying “Why would they need to see that?”

“I'll look,” Tryanno said as he grabbed a few cards, “but you'll have to explain what looking at your Elemental Heroes is going to t-” he then paused when he saw the cards, “These aren't your Elemental Heroes.”

“Say what?!” Everyone, except Jaden, said as they then tried to grab a few cards themselves to see.

“Within me is some sort of power I can't really explain.” Jaden explained as he picked up one card 'Elemental HERO Rampart Blaster', “But it connects me to the duel spirits in ways way beyond what any machine can read. It has it's perks, like manifesting duel monsters into reality without needing a duel disk, but it also means things happening to me can effect my cards.” His eyes then barley flashed gold as a dark aura burst from his hand to the card he was holding, catching everyone off guard as the card was dropped. Once the aura faded, the card that was Rampart Blaster was now 'Evil HERO Infernal Sniper'.

“I- I see then,” Bastion stated trying to stay calm but obviously creeped out as seeing a card change right before his eyes. “So I take it that something about Academia's effect on it's students caused your cards to be influenced this way.” Jaden nodded, silently grabbing another bite of eggs.

“That's kinda creepy.” Syrus stated.

“And one of the main reasons why I decided we needed to leave.” Jaden added, “After all, I may not have as high an IQ as Bastion, but I don't need one to guess that something that indirectly causes my Elemental Heroes to turn into something called 'Evil' Heroes,” putting emphasis on the word 'evil' “probably isn't the best influence.”

Bastion gulped, “Agreed.”

“I should probably get back to steering the ship.” Tryanno said, though it was no secret that he wanted to get away to proses what he just learned. “We have been in safe waters for a while now, but someone needs to make sure we don't crash into something when it we start getting near land.”

“Alright,” Bastion said, “and that might be soon anyway, so me might want to finish eating and get ready to dock soon anyway.”

“Okay then.” Everyone else agreed as they gave Jaden his cards back.

**Mini line break**

Once they hit ashore, everyone left the boat and took a quick look around “Not a single Juvenile officer in sight.” Syrus commented.

“For now at the least.” Bastion replied, “I chose this as our first stop as it is the furthest from Academia while still sending students there, and thus has the least amount on influence from it, best choice to get a foot hold in how getting people to stop going.”

“I get it.” Tryanno said, “Stop more troops from going in, and they can't pull out there plans without there strong arm force.”

“It'll do more then just stop more from coming in,” Chazz noted, “After all, Academia is still a school, how many parents do you think will let there kids stay in there once they learn what is happening?”

“Yep,” Jesse stated, “But we need to convince the Mayor or whoever is in charge of that thing first. Who's our sweet talker that will do that again?” He latter asked.

“Bastion.” Jaden, Chazz and Syrus responded in unison.

Bastion blinked at hearing that response, turning to Jaden saying “You really think I'll be able to do it.”

Jaden smirked saying “Dude, beyond, 'We got to get off this island' I had no idea what we were to do in getting everyone off. You thought up of the plan to get off, how we are to oppose Academia, and even grabbed evidence needed to convince the guys. Out of everyone here, if anyone can figure out what needs to be said to get the job done, it would be you. Your way more qualified for it them me at the very least.”

A smile appeared on Bastion's face “OK then, lets get going.” He then said as they set off. It took them a while, but they were eventually able to figure out the the mayor of the city is in fact the one who makes the call and has the power to stop kids from this city from going to Academia.

“Aw sweet,” Jaden said once they learned the info. “and his current location doesn't seem to far away either. Which means this is our chance to get the ball rolling.”

“Yep, nothing will be able to stop us now.” Chazz stated.

“Stop right there!” Some voices from behind the group called out. The gang turned to see five Juvenile Officers with there duel disks ready one of them saying, “Your coming with us, abandoning Academia is a first class offense that you will all have to pay for.”

“You just had to say something, didn't you?” Syrus muttered to Chazz.

Chazz growled back at the little boy but didn't comment on it, instead saying “You all go get to the Mayor, I'll take care of these nitwits.”

“Five on one?” Jesse commented, “Not even you can go with those odds, I'll help you out.”

“Whatever,” Chazz said.

“Good Luck.” Tryanno said.

“Kick there buts.” Jaden said as they started to leave.

“Hang on there-” On Juvenile Officer began, but got cut off by Chazz and Jesse activating there duel disks. “Oh, so that's how it is going to be then, huh?” The five officers then activated there duel disks, ready to duel.

As the other four then raced off to find the Mayor, a sharp object then flew passed them, not hitting any of them but almost making Syrus trip, “What was that?” He then asked.

“You all are about to answer for your abandonment.” Came a voice.

Tryanno looked up to the voice expecting more Juvenile officers but widened his eyes at what he saw, “What the? Sanders?”

Everyone then looked and saw the instructor, “Uh oh, we're in trouble.”

Bastion looked at Sanders and said, “So I guess you used your battle field know-how to figure out where we went.”

“Correct,” Sanders replied, “So you all should know that by now, all you worked up to is just about gone, so you can either do this the easy way or the hard way.” He then said activating his duel disk.

“Sorry, but were not going to be waving a white flag any time soon.” Tryanno said activating his duel disk, then turning to his friends, “Oh on ahead, I'll hold him off.”

“I'll help.” Syrus stated, activating his duel disk, “That way we'll win.”

“Alright then.” Tryanno responded. “Okay, you two go at it.”

“Got it, let's go Bastion.” Jaden said as he and Bastion went off.

“Your not getting away that easily.” Sanders said to himself before Shouting “BB, Don't Let Those Two Escape!”

A Blur happened in front of the two non-dueling former students, knocking them off a small bridge down below, “What was that?” Then in front of him, he saw someone with reddish brown hair, a well built lean frame and a familiar blue blazer on him. “A student?”

“Your not going anywhere.” The student stated, activating his duel disk.

Jaden then picked himself up as Bastion did the same, “Bastion, go on ahead. The Mayor shouldn't be to far from here.” Jaden then said activating his duel disk, “I'll take care of...” he then paused, “What was your name?” He asked the student.

“You can just call me BB.” The student replied.

“Okay then.” Jaden replied.

“Good Luck Jaden.” Bastion said as he went off.

“Same to you pal.” Jaden answered as he then turned back to BB. “Ready to get your game on BB?”

“Oh, it's on.” He replied as Jaden activated his Duel disk. “And soon, you will suffer the fate all traitors must suffer.”

“Then let's do this.” Jaden said.

“ **DUEL!”**

**(note, Duel uses pre-link rules)**

“I'll start things off.” BB stated. “I'll set one monster and one card and end my turn.” As he said that, the image representing a set monster appeared in front of him along with one for a set card.

“Starting defensively?” Jaden remarked, “Okay then, I draw! And since I have no monsters backing me up right now, I can special summon my 'Evil HERO Infernal Prodigy'.” He declared as a demonic monster appeared on his field.

**Evil HERO Infernal Prodigy** **... Attribute:Dark, Type:Fiend, Level:2, ATK:300 DEF:600**

“Not that he'll be around for long.” Jaden continued grabbing another card, “As you control a monster, This one can be summoned with only one tribute.” BB widened his eyes at that, “Let's go, I tribute Infernal Prodigy to Tribute Summon 'Evil HERO Malicious Edge'!” The prodigy faded as a new monster appeared, stronger and edgier (as in, actual edges and spikes) then the last.

**Evil HERO Malicious Edge** **... Attribute:Earth, Type:Fiend, Level:7, ATK:2600 DEF:1800**

“Now Malicious Edge, skewer his face down monster, Needle Burst!” Jaden declared as his monster obeyed, firing several large spikes at the face down monster that was revealing itself.

**Gladiator Beast Hoplomus** **... Attribute:Earth, Type:Rock, Level:4, ATK:700 DEF:2100**

“Trap activate!” BB declared as his face down came up, “'Impenetrable attack!' This card's effect can allow me to either prevent all battle damage this turn or prevent my monsters from being destroyed in battle this turn, I chose to save Hoplomus.” As he finished that a blue barrier of sorts appeared around his monster protecting it as the Spiked bounced off.

“Okay then.” Jaden commented, not worrying to much about the trap card, “Malicious Edge has an ability to inflict piercing damage, so while your monster is safe...” the deflected spiked then turned in mid air, now moving straight at BB “You sure aren't!” The spiked landed there mark, dropping BB's life points.

**BB's Life points: 8000 - > 7500**

Jaden then grabbed another card from his hand saying, “And now I'll play-”

“Not so fast!” BB Interrupted “At the end of the battle phase, When a 'Gladiator Beast' battled, I can return it to my deck!” As he said that, his monster vanished from the field.

“It's retreating?” Jaden asked, intrigued.

“And then I can summon another Gladiator Beast from the deck,” BB finished, “come forth Murmillo!” He then delared, as a small aquatic monster appeared to his field.

**Gladiator Beast Murmillo** **... Attribute:Water, Type:Fish, Level:3, ATK:800 DEF:400**

“And When Murmillo is summoned by the effect of a Gladiator Beast monster, I can destroy any face up monster on the field!” BB then declared.

“That's not good.” Jaden commented as his monster got destroyed by a torrent of water coming from the small enemy. “Huh so that's how you play.” He then stated, “Well, good thing heroes have been known to overcome all sorts of enemies. I play my spell card, 'Dark Future'!” As the giant image of his card appeared, a dark mist crept out from the card and into his deck a he explained, “This card lets me take all the fusion material monsters that are specifically listed on a dark fusion monster of mine and move them straight from the deck to the graveyard.” Three cards then came out of the deck for Jaden to grab, “I'll send away, The Elemental HEROes, Avian, Sparkman and Bubbleman.”

“Looks to me like there walking straight to the grave instead of overcoming me.” BB commented, a smirk on his face.

“Just wait till next turn.” Jaden replied, “and to help me last that long, I'll throw down 2 face-downs, and during my End Phase, since Infernal Prodigy was tributed for the tribute summon of a 'HERO' monster, I can draw one card.” he concluded, drawing from his deck. But his eyes widened when he saw the card. “Well, haven't seen you in a while.” he muttered “Was it Academia keeping you away? Because I can't blame you for not wanting to be apart of that place.”

“It's my turn!” BB stated drawing a card. “I'll summon, 'Gladiator Beast Bestiari'!” He declares as a winged monster appeared on his field.

**Gladiator Beast Bestiari** **... Attribute:Wind, Type:Winged-Beast, Level:4, ATK:1500 DEF:800**

“And Now.” BB started, “I'll return both Bestiari and Murmillo to my deck to fusion summon!”

Jaden's eyes went wide at hearing that, “You have Contact Fusion!?”

BB Ignored that he he instead chanted “ _Fighting bird of prey that lived in ancient times_ _! Merge with the souls of_ _gladiators_ _and become a warrior of legend! Fusion Summon! Come!_ _Gladiator Beast Gyzarus_ _!_ ” A new monster appeared on the field with powered armor ready to strike Jaden down.

**Gladiator Beast Gyzarus** **... Attribute:Dark, Type:Winged-Beast, Level:6, ATK:2400 DEF:1500**

“When Gyzarus is summoned I can destroy any 2 cards on the field.” BB explained as two green tornadoes erupted from nearby his new monster and wiped out Jaden's face down cards revealing them to be 'Supreme Power' and 'Negate Attack'.

“This isn't good.” Jaden muttered to himself.

“Go Gyzarus! Direct attack!” BB ordered as his gladiator obeyed. Launching another tornado straight at Jaden.

**Jaden's Life Points: 8000 - > 5600**

“At the end of my Battle Phase,” BB continued, “Gyzarus can return to my extra deck to summon 2 more Gladiator Beasts from my deck.” As his big monster fell back BB then continued saying “Come forth, Gladiator Beasts Hoplomus and Laquari!” Coming down were two more monsters one familiar one in defense position that Jaden recognized from last turn, and a new one primed and ready in attack position.

**Gladiator Beast Laquari** **... Attribute:Fire, Type:Beast-Warrior, Level:4, ATK:1800 DEF:400**

“When summoned by a Gladiator Beast, these two have there base attack and defense change.” BB explained as his monsters powered up.

**Gladiator Beast Laquari** **... ATK:1800 - > 2100**

**Gladiator Beast Hoplomus** **... DEF:2100 - > 2400**

“I set one card and end my turn.” BB concluded.

Jaden coughed a bit as he got up, “Okay, this is going to be tougher then I thought.” He said to himself. He then turned to BB saying “Okay, what's your story?”

“What are you talking about?” BB asked.

“I know first hand that Academia takes 'special' care of duelists that show extraordinary talent for an advanced fusion summoning technique like Contact Fusion.” Jaden explained, “And don't even bother trying to lie to yourself and say you like it. Why do you keep siding with them when you could get away? We can even help you with that.”

“Like I need to explain my self to you.” BB snapped, trying not to show any fear as the answers popped up in his mind. “Now shut up and take your turn.”

“Fine then, I draw.” Jaden announced drawing a card, “At this moment, the second part of 'Dark Future's effect can unfold.” Jaden began as the ghostly images of three specific Heroes showed up in front of him.

“Second Part?” BB asked.

“Those three Heroes I sent to my graveyard last turn,” Jaden answered, “They can now undergo a Dark Fusion right now.” BB eyes widened as Jaden Chanted, _“Aquatic Gadgetry Hero, Electrical Savior, Hero of the Skies, now at your breaking points, merge and bring vengeance with an unending storm. Go! Dark Fusion! Descend! Evil HERO Stormbringer!”_ The skies Darkened and the wind Picked up as he chanted, Thunder Boomed as a new monster came descending from the clouds. Jaden's new fusion roared, letting the city know it has come to fight.

**Evil HERO Stormbringer** **... Attribute:Wind, Type:Fiend, Level:8, ATK:2800 DEF:2800**

“And to join him.” Jaden continued, “I'll summon out an old friend of mine. 'Neo-Spacian Grand Mole'!”

“A Neo-what?” BB asked, only to be answered when a drill commanding mole of sorts popped out of the ground.

**Neo-Spacian Grand Mole... Attribute:Earth, Type:Rock, Level:3, ATK:900 DEF:300**

“Now Stormbringer, attack Laquari! Storm Strike!” Jaden called as his monster gathered a ball of Wing, Water and Lightning in it's hands as threw it at the target Beast.

“Hold it! Reverse card Open!” BB declared, “'Shrink' With this, your monster's attack is halved!” He continued as the ball shrank and Laquari jumped up to counter attack. Releasing flames to deflect the ball and go towards Jaden's monster, however the winds were to strong, the flames were knocked down hitting Jaden a bit as his monster was untouched.

**Evil HERO Stormbringer** **... ATK:2800 - > 1400**

**Jaden's Life Points: 5600 - > 4900**

“Stormbringer can't be destroyed in battle.” Jaden explained, “But so I don't have to worry about Laquari there tagging out again, I'll attack it with Grand Mole.”

“Your doing what?” BB asked not expecting that move. “But it will be wiped out.”

“Nothing is ever that simple pal,” Jaden answered, “When Grand Mole battles I can use it's effect to prevent all battle damage and return both battling monsters to the hand.”

“Say what?” BB asked, even though he heard the answer and then saw it unfold in front of him as both his beast and the mole got shot back into there owner's hands.

“And with that I'll end my turn, allowing 'Shrink's effect to wear off.” Jaden concluded as his monster got back it's lost strength.

**Evil HERO Stormbringer** **... ATK:1400 - > 2800**

“I draw.” BB said as he drew a card and looked at it, “Hmm, I'll activate 'Raigeki' to destroy your monster.”

“You think a Lightning bolt will phase this guy?” Jaden smirked, “He's got them all around him, in fact once per turn he can protect any monster on my field from being destroyed by card effects for the whole turn, including himself.” He then explains as Stormbringer easily deflected the Lightning bolt caused by BB's spell as though it were a pesky mosquito being swatted at.

BB growled at that, “I set a monster and end my turn.”

“My go then.” Jaden said drawing a card, “and with Stormbringer covering the sky's here my pal covering the ground. Come on back Grand Mole!” The mole from before re-emerged on Jaden's field again.

“Stormbringer, strike down that Gladiator, Storm Strike!” Jaden then declared as his monster obeyed, taking down Hoplomus without any trouble. “And now Grand Mole will keep his drill a spinning and use his effect on your face down with another attack.” The little Mole like monster drilled right toward the face down monster, revealed to be Laquari again, as both were shot back to the hand again. “and with that I'll end my turn. Sure you want to keep this up?” Jaden then asked, “I can tell that your relationship with Academia is shaky at best, and that's being optimistic about said relationship, we will have no issue helping you out if you want to walk away from them now.”

“Don't act like you know me, I draw.” BB then stated.

“I'm not.” Jaden then said, “I'm just stating what I can tell from the duel, what I can hear from your cards.”

“My cards?” BB asked, caught off guard by that.

“They have there own souls you know.” Jaden stated, “And they are begging you to step away from Academia, while very frustrated that your are not one of the beings you can hear or see there spirits. They've been through something similar before, and they don't want you to fall for that same fate.”

“Oh, shut up already.” BB said, in slight disbelief that his opponent could hear them, if what he said is true, but part of him wanting to believe it. “I play 'Reload' to shuffle my hand up and redraw.” He then said as he did just that drawing three new cards, smirking when he saw them. “And now I'll play 'Card Destruction'! So we both discard our hands and re-draw!”

“Wait, that means-” Jaden began.

“Yep,” BB concluded “ your little mole is out of the game, so no more bouncing my monsters back.”

Jaden looked down at his hand, Grand Mole was there, along with, 'Elemental HERO Bursiatrix', 'E-emergency call', and 'Necro Gardna'. “Sorry guys.” he then muttered to his cards, as he had to discard them all for 4 new ones.

“Now I'll set a monster and a face down and end my turn.” He said smirking, despite having now emptied his hand.

“Then it's my turn,” Jaden said drawing a card, “I'll start things off with 'O-Oversoul' so I can resurrect hero from the graveyard.” He declared as a Light shined from his Graveyard, “Come on back, 'Elemental HERO Sparkman'!” As he said that, the Hero erupted from the graveyard, ready to fight.

**Elemental HERO Sparkman** **... Attribute:Light, Type:Warrior, Level:4, ATK:1600 DEF:1400**

“And to join him, I summon out 'Evil HERO Dark Prism'!” He then declared as a monster made of tinted prism's appeared on his field.

**Evil HERO Dark Prism... Attribute:Dark, Type:Warrior, Level:4, ATK:1700 DEF:1100**

“With Dark Prism's effect, I can send 'Elemental HERO Clayman' to the graveyard so when I play 'Dark Fusion',” he then stated while revealing the spell card, “He can be treated as such when I merge him with Sparkman.”

“So another Fusion.” BB stated.

“Yep, ” Jaden replied as he chanted, “ _Clay Guardian, Lightning Hero, Become one force to wipe out those who did wrong! Dark Fusion! Rise Up! Evil HERO Lightning Golem!_ ” Coming from this fusion vortex was a large giant sized monster, with black lightning arching all over it's body.

**Evil HERO Lightning Golem... Attribute:Light, Type:Fiend, Level:6, ATK:2400 DEF:1500**

“Lightning Golem's effect let's me destroy one monster each turn.” Jaden explained.

“What?” BB replied, not liking what that meant.

“Go, Voltic Ball!” Jaden declared as the Golem shot an electric ball at the face down monster vaporizing it before it identity was even revealed. “And that was just his effect,” Jaden continued, “Here comes the attack. Go! Hell Lightning!” Jaden commanded as the golem shot black lightning down at BB, electrocuting him.

**BB's Life points: 7500 - > 5100**

“And don't forget about Strombringer, he's got a direct attack coming your way as well!” and the named monster shot another ball of wind, water, and... more lightning at BB, electrocuting him further.

**BB's Life points: 5100 - > 2300**

“And with that I'll end my turn.” Jaden said.

“I draw.” BB declared, drawing a card, “And I play 'Pot of Greed'!”

“No need to explain that one.” Jaden said as he saw his opponent draw 2 more cards off of the card just played.

BB smirked when he saw the cards he drew, “Now I'll activate 'Dark Hole' to wipe out your monsters!” He then declared as a giant vortex appeared to suck up Jaden's field.

“Not all of them.” Jaden pointed out, “Stormbringer's effect let's me save one of them of my choice.”

“Your choice doesn't matter!” BB declared, “by banishing the 'Breakthrough Skill' in my graveyard I can negate Stormbringer's effect!”

“What?” Jaden declared, not recalling that card going to the graveyard, then deciding it must have happened when BB played 'Card Destruction' last turn.

“Now come forth, Murmillo!” BB declared once Jaden's field was clear, summoning forth the small Aquatic Gladiator Beast from the beginning of the duel.

**Gladiator Beast Murmillo** **... Attribute:Water, Type:Fish, Level:3, ATK:800 DEF:400**

“Now Murmillo, Direct Attack!” BB declared as his monster obeyed, shooting a water stream right at Jaden.

**Jaden's Life Points: 4900 - > 4100**

“Guess I should be glad you didn't get a stronger one.” Jaden said once the attack subsided.

“At the end of my battle phase, Murmillo returns to my deck to summon out a different Gladiator Beast.” BB Explained as his monster vanished, “Come back Laquari!” Re-emerging was another monster BB used earlier, one Jaden knew got stronger when summoned by the help of it's allies.

**Gladiator Beast Laquari** **... Attribute:Fire, Type:Beast-Warrior, Level:4, ATK:1800 DEF:400**

**Gladiator Beast Laquari** **... ATK:1800 - > 2100**

“I end my turn.” BB announced.

“Then it is my go, I draw.” Jaden declared, drawing a card. “I activate, 'Monster Reborn'!” He declared revealing the card he drew. “So now I can bring back an old friend, 'Evil HERO Malicious Edge'!” As he said that, the monster he played on his first turn came up again, ready to fight.

**Evil HERO Malicious Edge** **... Attribute:Earth, Type:Fiend, Level:7, ATK:2600 DEF:1800**

“And now that he's back, here is some back up for him.” He declared, “Come on out 'Evil HERO Infernal Gainer'!” As he said that, another monster came out, not as imposing as the revived monster, but still just as menacing.

**Evil HERO Infernal Gainer** **... Attribute:Earth, Type:Fiend, Level:4, ATK:1600 DEF:0**

“Although, he ain't support in your typical fashion.” Jaden began to explain, “With his effect, I can banish him until my second standby phase from now to give one monster I have out the ability to attack twice every Battle Phase.” As he said that, his new monster vanished from sight, as the older one got a deep crimson glow for a second, indicating the effect's target.

“Time to end this.” Jaden declared, “Malicious Edge attack Laquari! Needle Burst!”

“Not so fast, reverse card open!” BB declared as his face down flipped up. “'Half Shut'! This card render's a monster indestructible in battle, but also halves the attack stat!”

“Not good.” Jaden said as his monster's strength was cut. Allowing the Gladiator to overpower it and repel it with a fire blast.

**Evil HERO Malicious Edge** **... ATK:2600 - > 1300**

**Jaden's Life Points: 4100 - > 3700**

Jaden growled a bit as his predicament, as he knew the second attack from Infernal Gainer's effect wouldn't help him out much anymore. “I end my turn.”

BB grinned at that, “At the end of the Battle Phase, Laquari's effect activates, retuning to my deck to bring Murmillo out again.” As he said that, the monster's swapped places again, showing the tiny guy back out again. “And this sets off Murmillo's effect to destroy Malicious Edge again.” A repeat of what happened so early on in the duel took place again, laving Jaden without a monster on the field yet again.

“And now, It's my turn, I draw!” BB declared drawing a card, grin not faulting when he sees what it is. “I summon, 'Gladiator Beast Bestiari'!” He then declared as a winged gladiator took to the field again.

**Gladiator Beast Bestiari** **... Attribute:Wind, Type:Winged-Beast, Level:4, ATK:1500 DEF:800**

“This is looking familiar.” Jaden stated, recalling what BB showed that he could do earlier in the duel.

“And Now.” BB started, “I'll return both Bestiari and Murmillo to my deck to Fusion summon! _Fighting bird of prey that lived in ancient times_ _! Merge with the souls of_ _gladiators_ _and become a warrior of legend! Fusion Summon! Come!_ _Gladiator Beast Gyzarus_ _!_ ” BB's Fusion monster then reappeared on to the field again ready to strike.

**Gladiator Beast Gyzarus** **... Attribute:Dark, Type:Winged-Beast, Level:6, ATK:2400 DEF:1500**

“Gyzarus! Direct Attack!” BB then declared, as the monster obeyed, launching a green tornado right at Jaden again.

**Jaden's Life Points: 3700 - > 1300**

“At the end of my Battle Phase, Gyzarus returns to the extra deck to summon 2 Gladiator Beasts from my deck!” BB continued as Gyzarus vanished, “Come forth, Laquari and Darius!” Coming forth were two more monsters, one Jaden recognized as he saw it many times before in this duel, but the other was a new, more horse like gladiator that he didn't recognize.

**Gladiator Beast Darius** **... Attribute:Earth, Type:Beast-Warrior, Level:4, ATK:1700 DEF:300**

“When Darius is summoned by the effect of another Gladiator Beast, I can revive one from the graveyard with it's effect's negated.” BB then continued. “So come back, Hoplomus!” The monster Jaden destroyed so long ago returned to the field in defense position again, but BB did not seem done yet. “I now return all three of these monsters to the deck to Fusion Summon!”

“This isn't good.” Jaden told himself as he saw the triple contact Fusion happen before his eyes.

“ _Flaming Tiger of Power that lived in ancient times_ _!”_ BB started to chant as the three monsters vanished _“Merge with the souls of_ _gladiators_ _and become a warrior of legend! Fusion Summon! Come!_ _Gladiator Beast Heraklinos_ _!”_ Emerging from the fusion portal was a large Gladiator, ready to seemingly destroy everything that came and challenged it.

**Gladiator Beast Heraklinos... Attribute:Fire, Type:Beast-Warrior, Level:8, ATK:3000 DEF:2800**

“I end my turn.” BB concluded.

' _I need to end it this turn_ ' Jaden thought to himself, ' _Otherwise I'll be caught in the same condition my monsters are in once this guy here rolls over me, but unlike them, I won't get the luxury of seeing what's happening around me or get any chance to speak with anyone or, be able to do anything really._ ' He then looked down at the only card left in his hand, 'Elemental HERO Wildheart', ' _and as good as Wildheart is, he can't be of any help here, I need something big._ ' He then felt a dark presence from his extra deck emerge, checking it with his duel disk, he saw that another one of his heroes was changing. ' _Well, I guess that's my play then._ '

“It's my turn I draw!” Jaden declared, drawing his card immediately playing it. “I activate the spell card, 'Dark Calling'!” A card then came out of his duel disk, covered in a Dark Aura, “This card let's me preform a dark fusion by banishing the appropriate fusion material monsters from my hand, field or graveyard.”

BB's eyes widened as Jaden's glowed gold. “I now fuse the Elemental HEROes Avian, Bubbleman, Burstinatrix, and Clayman that are in my graveyard together.” Jaden then declared as the four heroes appeared again to merge in the Dark Fusion vortex, “ _Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, may original Heroes of your elements unite to form a strength unlike any other!_ ” Jaden's eyes glowed brighter during the chant as the sky darkened and the dark aura from the card vanished revealing it's new name and identity. “ _Release your long repressed anger to bring ruin to all those that deserve it and more!_ ”

He put the card on his duel disk, time for the new hero to show themselves. “ _Go! Dark Fusion! End This! Evil HERO Shadow Spectrum!_ ” Coming from the portal was a cloaked figure who's only see-able features underneath the cloak was it's Golden eyes, and several multicolored veins that somewhat resemble the appearance of a human being.

**Evil HERO Shadow Spectrum** **... Attribute:Dark/Fire/Earth/Wind/Water, Type:Fiend, Level:10, ATK:2900 DEF:2600**

“What in the world?” BB asked, not sure what to make of the monster before him, or Jaden's glowing eyes.

“Shadow Spectrum gains 300 attack points for each banished card, and right now there are 5.” Jaden stated as the attack points of his monster got adjusted.

**Evil HERO Shadow Spectrum** **... ATK:2900 - > 4400**

“Furthermore, when it battles a monster,” Jaden continued “If I have at least 4 cards banished, and the monster it is battling shares an attribute with them Shadow Spectrum reduces the attack points and defense points of your monster to zero during the battle.”

“Wh-What?” BB asked, not sure a monster like that could even exist.

“Battle.” Jaden continued, “'Evil HERO Shadow Spectrum' attacks 'Gladiator Beast Heraklinos', Spectrum Oblivion!” He then declared as his monster obeyed. Gathering several multicolored lights in between it's 'hands' including a stream of Red form it's attack target, before firing it in one big blast of Red, Blue, Green, Brown, and Black right at the Gladiator Beast, who did not stand a chance.

**Gladiator Beast Heraklinos... ATK:3000 - > 0**

**BB's Life points: 2300 - > 0**

BB was thrown back by the attack, hitting a wall and passing out. Jaden then turned his attention to where he thought Sander's was dueling his friends. Then he looked at his new Evil HERO, whom had not vanished at the Duel's conclusion “Let's go help the other's then check on Bastion.” He told it, and they nodded.

**Line Break**

A few hours latter back at Academia, mission to capture the escape students failed, Sanders was now kneeling in front of professor Leo Akaba. “Please forgive me professor.” He pleaded, “With another chance I can deliver the punishment that Slifer and his friends deserve for leaving us.”

“There is no need,” Leo said, voice not showing a hit of anger. “It is clear to me that Jaden, while in the Slifer Dorm during his stay, was one of the best duelist we had at our disposal, and by the looks of it, he is much stronger then what he lets us know about. As strong as you and those you teach are, I have high doubts that Jaden will be defeated by anything you would use for this type of job.” Leo Paused for a bit as Sanders nodded in understanding. “I will think of something to get Jaden out of the way, but we should not put to much effort into this right now, we have more important things to do then chase after this boy.”

“Then what shall I do?” Sanders asked.

“Continue training the students, getting them ready for the battlefield like you did before.” Leo answered calmly, “If anything else comes up that will need your assistance, I will call then.”

“Yes sir.” Sanders replied.

“Very well then, you are free to move on with your duties.” Leo said, dismissing Sanders.

As Sanders walked out of the meeting room, BB was there outside right where Sanders told him to wait. “OK, listen up BB, Professor Akaba has decided not to give us any punishment, but we are still on call if we are needed again.” BB nodded quickly, while trying not to shrink down due to the fear he felt from the man in front of him. “As such when that happens, to avoid a failure like what happened with that slacker, I shall be giving you a special training course to improve your strength to the point of crushing all your enemies.”

“U- Understood.” BB replied. Doing his best not to shudder in his speech.

“Good.” Sanders said as he turned to walk down the hallway, “Now follow me. We shall begin immediately, and once all is done, you truly shall be worthy of the codename 'Battle Beast'.”

BB did as he was told and started following Sanders to whatever room the special training session would take place in, but with each step he took, he felt the dread in him build up more and more. Whatever the 'Special Training' entailed, he was sure he would not be liking it one bit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's Chapter 2 of Dark Fusion... when I first put this up on Fanfic.net, I still didn't have a plan to take this story further... though I eventually decided that leaving it at this wouldn't be enough and that a true climax chapter would be better. So a Thought up of 3 more chapters to actually have some build up to that climax... get ready, next chapter is "Trapeze Magic".


	3. Trapeze Magic

Leo, from atop his throne, looked at the student in front of him, “Are you sure you are well enough to go back into action?”

“100%” The boy answered, “The only issue being that I can't do the same old job since my identity as a spy was uncovered.”

“That is true,” The Professor admitted, “Thankfully there are plenty of other jobs you can do.”

“So what should I do then?” The student asked, “Help those in Xyz card any more stragglers? Prepare for when the Lancers make there way here? Round up ay traitors that are nearby?”

A thought occurred to Leo upon hearing that, “Actually, that last one sounds perfect.”

The boy raised an eyebrow on that, “Got a certain traitor in mind?” he asked, “I think I overheard something about Sora turning from a few Obelisk Force members.”

“Sora has turned traitor,” The professor admitted, “but he is not who I am thinking of. A couple months ago, a certain Slifer student you may have heard of left on a boat and kept himself separate from most other traitors that abandon the Academy.”

“A Slifer?” The student asked, as he searched his memories to think of any that was noteworthy.

“Do not let his rank fool you.” Leo warned, “Jaden Yuki is easily one of the best Duelists we had in the academy, he chooses to stay in the red dorm, but can easily compete with those in Obelisk and win without breaking a sweat, as he has done many times before on record.”

“Guess I'll need to check out the data we have on him then.” The boy stated, “Has he encountered Xyz or Pendulum summoning yet?”

“That's why I am thinking you could defeat him.” The Professor stated, “He hasn't fought Xyz summoning yet, and the possibility of him having even heard of Pendulum summoning is low.”

“Thank you for the faith in me.” The boy replied, “I'll get started on going after him right away.”

“One more thing,” Leo added, “Despite the fact that his potential of being an issue latter down he line is much greater then that of the other traitors, his location leaves the chances of that happening to be very low. Should you fail to get him, don't bother trying over and over again, just focus on the ones that are closer to the Island. A duelist of your skill should be at the ready in case plans take an unexpected turn.”

“Understood.” The student replied.

The Professor nodded, “Then you are now dismissed. Good luck, Dennis.”

**Linebreak**

Jaden was looking over his deck. He needed to make sure any change in his deck caused by his special connection to his duel spirits was accounted for. In the two months since he left Duel Academy Island, the rest of his Elemental Hero Fusion monsters had transformed into Evil Hero versions of themselves. Furthermore, most, if not all, of his main deck cards had also changed to allow the use of the Evil Heroes... although most of the main deck Elemental Heroes haven't changed at all, a bit of a surprise, but Jaden is happy to see them stay the same. Same applied to the Neo-Spacians as well, He was glad whatever Academia did to his head wasn't effecting them once all of them re-appeared in his deck. Or, well, almost all of them.

He heard a click of a Door and looked up to see Bastion leaving the room in front of him, “So, how did it go?” Jaden asked, as they started to walk down the hallway.

“Not as good as I was hoping, but about as well as I was expecting.” Bastion answered. “As expected the closer the city is to Duel Academy, the more influence it has over the city, and thus, the harder it is to get people to realize that it is not as it is advertising itself to be. I expect I'll need another conversation or two with him to get actions against Duel Academy to happen here.”

Jaden smirked, “Ehh, you probably did better then you think you did. After all you got the last two guys on our side easy enough, So you should be getting in enough practice to make each iteration of your speech more effective then the last.”

Bastion sighed, but smiled at the same time, “Thanks, but sadly it isn't quite that simple. Anyway how are you doing?”

Jaden blinked at that, “What do you mean?”

“Everyone can tell that you've been worried about something lately, your mind is constantly elsewhere practically all the time, especially during practice duels.” Bastion clarified, “What is it that's been bugging you? Is it how Alexis is doing? Or maybe something concerning why Academia hasn't tried to re-capture us after Sanders failed?”

“Oh, that.” The Hero user replied, “It's nothing you need to get concerned over.”

“I believe the job of friends is to get concerned over whatever is bothering another friend.” Bastion countered.

“Well, it is one of the things in the job description.” The Red clad duelist confirmed, “But really, there's not much you could do anyway, as it is between me and my duel spirits.” He then admitted.

“Okay then.” Bastion said, “But remember, you can always come to me or anyone else with us if you need some help.” He then offered, “Even without the ability to see what you see, Syrus, Tryanno and I are more then willing to give whatever insight or idea's we can come up with that might help. Furthermore Jesse and Chazz can see duel spirits as well, so they can be even more helpful.”

“True.” Jaden agreed. “Anyway, I'm thinking of taking a walk thorough town.” He then said as they left the building. “Get some fresh air, you know. Need me to continue playing bodyguard for you to get back to the others, or are you good? ”

“I should be fine.” Bastion answered. “Be careful.”

“Will, do. See ya latter.” Jaden replied as he and Bastion split up and started walking in opposite directions along the street. It was a pretty nice day out, not to warm, not to cold, plus a nice breeze and a clear sky. It's been a while since he saw it be this nice out, might as well enjoy it while he can.

However, before he got to far along the mostly empty street, a voice called out to him, “Well, if it is between you and us, then now is as good as a time as any to talk about it.” He looked to his side to see the transparent image of Neo-Spacian Grand Mole floating right there next to him. “It's better to talk about it sooner rather then latter after all,” the mole said, “and there's not to many people here to think of you as some weirdo for talking to 'empty air' at the moment.” he concluded, putting air quotes around the words empty air.

Jaden sighed, “I guess your right.” He has been avoiding the talk for about a couple months now, and staring at his cards instead of talking to them wasn't giving him the answers... none of them were mind readers after all. “So to start things off, why leave when you did?” He then asked.

Now was the mole's turn to sigh, “Sorry about that, we would have mention it to you before we did leave, but by the time we figured it out ourselves, there wasn't enough time.”

“Was it due to the same reason why my Heroes changed?” Jaden asked.

“Yep,” the duel spirit confirmed, “the effect duel Academy had on you, and thus, indirectly onto us, was gradual. So we didn't notice it until we had about 2 seconds or so to get out of the deck and avoid being altered.”

“So why come back when you did?” The duelist replied, “More of my cards were still changing even after you and the others came back, aren't you still at risk of changing then?”

“Nope,” Grand mole replied, “At least I don't think so. Since you left duel academy the situation shouldn't get any worse for you, your remaining Heroes were changing simply because other related cards in the deck already changed. Since all us Neo-Spacians have little to no direct relationship with those Heroes, we aren't going to be changed from being so close to those Evil Heroes. But if something happened to you on the other hand.”

“I see,” the Duelist replied, feeling a bit better, “So is that why-”

“LADIES AND GENTALMEN!!!!!!” came a booming voice that surprised Jaden enough to stop his question.

“What the?” Jaden looked to where the voice came from, seeing a small crowd around a stage like area, with speakers amplifying the speakers voice as the crowd got larger. “Is there a magic show or something going on?”

“Maybe, want to take a look?” The Neo-Spacian asked, “Might be fun.”

Jaden shrugged, forgetting about his question, “Ehh, Sure, why not?” He then moved to join the crowd, and he had to say, it was a nice show. There was some magic tricks, but it was mostly a visual spectacle. There was only one performer, someone named Dennis Macfield, but he was able to use Solid vision to create “assistants” from duel monster cards, as well as make extra props from nowhere and add to the visual appeal. However somewhere in the back of Jaden's mind, he had a feeling that he should get going before long, he felt like he heard the performer's name somewhere before, but couldn't quite place it.

“And now for one final spectacle.” Dennis proclaimed, “But for this one, I will need a someone from the audience to come step up and help out.” The crowd seemed eager to participate, “Whoa whoa whoa, everyone calm down now.” he tried to get them to quiet down, “After all. Not just anybody can help me out with this, I need a professional.” He then turned to a solid vision construct of a Duel monster, saying “So I'm going to have Trapeze Magician here select the best one out of you for the job.” The monster jumped up, created a trapeze swing from nothing and swung over the audience scanning all of them. As the audience waited, some holding their breaths hoping they would get chosen. The duel monster then spotted Jaden in the crowd and faster then he could react, picked up the former Duel Academy student, placing him on the stage.

“Uh, Oh.” Grand Mole stated, “Maybe we should have left sooner.”

“Nice choice Trapeze Magician.” Dennis stated as he turned to Jaden. “Jaden Yuki, am I correct?”

“How did you-” Jaden began, but didn't finish, not that he needed to.

“You have almost a perfect win percentage on the Duel Academy records.” Dennis answered, “A great duelist like you should easily be able help make a crowed wowing experience.” He then put his hands together, “As my final spectacle to show everyone here... is a duel.” He then re-opened his hands revealing a Duel Academy issue duel disk, conjured seemingly out of mid-air. “What do you say, want to duel?”

' _He's from Duel Academy, that why his name sounded familiar._ ' Jaden thought to himself, ' _Guess they haven't given up on catching us like I thought._ ' The crowed gave a roar of approval now wanting Jaden to accept. ' _And he got a crowd to to back him up, so refusing isn't much of an option, clever._ '

“Go ahead.” Grand Mole said, turning to Jaden, “We got your back, you have nothing to worry about.”

Jaden smiled as Grand Mole vanished from his sight, “Okay then. Get your game on!” He exclaimed as he pulled out his duel disk from his jacket and put it on.

Dennis smiled, “Oh I will,” He said as he put on his duel disk “Just make sure you can keep up. After all it wouldn't be a good show if it is over in just a couple of turns after all.”

Jaden's eyes narrowed, as both duel disks turned on.

“ **Duel!”**

“Since I've been running this whole show from the start. You can take the first turn.” Dennis offered.

“Okay, then.” Jaden replied as he looked into his hand, “I'll set a monster face-down and end my turn.” He declared moving only one card from his hand onto the duel disk.

“That's it?” Dennis asked, raising an eyebrow.

“For this turn, yes.” Jaden answered. “Don't worry, I'll make my contribution to this show amazing, I just need some time to warm up first.”

“Very well then, I draw.” Dennis declared drawing a card, “And while you started simple, I'll start spectacularly!” He then turned to the audience saying, “Ladies and Gentlemen, get ready as I am about to set the stage for a summoning technique for the likes of which I am sure you have never seen before!”

Jaden narrowed his eyes at his opponent's antics, ' _He sure loves being the show man._ ' he thought, ' _but to summon using something other then Fusion? What else could he have learned? Maybe Xyz, if this guy was sent to that dimension for recon or something._ '

“Pay close attention everyone, as it is super simple if you have the right cards.” Dennis continued, “Fist up, I'll take two special monsters of mine, namely my 'Preformage Bubble Gardna' and my 'Preformage Fire Dancer', and I set them as my Pendulum Scales!” He then finished putting both cards onto the edges of his duel disk.

Jaden eyes widened at that, “What the, Pendulum Scales?” As he said that he saw two blue pillars of light appear on Dennis's field, each with one of the monsters he declared in them, and a number below both.

**Preformage Bubble Gardna... PS: 2**

**Preformage Fire Dancer... PS: 6**

The crowd gave 'Oooo's and 'Ahhh's upon seeing the pillars, as Dennis's grin grew bigger. “Now the stage is set! With two Pendulum Zones I am now allowed to Pendulum Summon once every turn!”

“Pendulum Summon? What dose that mean?” Jaden asked, genuinely interested.

“It means I can now special summon multiple monsters from my hand all at the same time as long as there levels are between my pendulum scales.” Dennis answered. “And with Pendulum Scales of 2 and 6, that means I get to pendulum summon monsters level 3, 4, or 5.”

' _Many monsters all at once?_ ' Jaden though to himself as he processed the information. ' _And it's a special summon, so tributes probably aren't necessary. That could be more troubling if he had different scale values. Though it might still be trouble even with only those._ '

“Now It's Time! I Pendulum Summon!” The Academia student declared. “Come Out, 'Preformage Water Dancer'!” As he said that a circle opened up in the sky between the two blue Pillars the declared clown-esq monster shot out of the circle and only Dennis's field.

**Preformage Water Dancer...** **Attribute:Water, Type:Spellcaster/Pendulum, Level:4, ATK:1200 DEF:1400**

“Your only summoning one?” Jaden asked, to him, it seemed like summoning many monsters was the appeal of this summoning mechanic. He could have just normal summoned that one after all.

“You'll get to see the full effects latter.” Dennis replied, “This is just the warm up, Now lets welcome another cast member, namely my good pal 'Preformage String Figure'!” He then declared as another clown-like monster appeared on his field.”

**Preformage String Figure... Attribute:Dark, Type:Spellcaster, Level:1, ATK:0 DEF:0**

“Now get ready folks, because from my Pendulum Summon, a Fusion Summon will now appear!” Dennis then announced, keeping the audience's attention on him. “String Figure lets me fusion summon using monster's on my field thanks to his effect, so I'll fuse him and Water Dancer together!” He then said as a fusion vortex appeared behind him, and both monster went in. " _Dancer that communes with the Ocean_ _! Merge with_ _the infinitely form-changing strings that connect people_ _, and become a new witch that spurs the sky! Fusion Summon! Appear, Level 7! Prefor_ _mage Trapeze Witch_ _!_ " He then chanted as a slender woman appeared from the vortex, riding in on a floating Trapeze swing.

**Preformage Trapeze Witch... Attribute:Dark, Type:Spellcaster, Level:7, ATK:2400 DEF:1800**

“Now, it's time for the supporting roles to do there thing.” Dennis then stated, “I activate the pendulum effect of my Fire Dancer.”

“They have effects in that state?” Jaden asked, looking to the, now glowing, Fire Dancer in her Pillar.

“Yep,” Dennis replied. “And My Fire Dancer has an ability to grant the power of piercing damage to a monster I have out. Namely, my Trapeze Witch!” He then said as the dancer then shot flames toward the witch, giving her a red glow. “Now Trapeze Witch! Time to attack his face down monster!” Dennis declared, as his monster obeyed jumping of it's trapeze swing and headed right toward Jaden's face down monster that then revealed itself.

**Card Trooper... Attribute:Earth, Type:Machine, Level:3, ATK:400 DEF:400**

The witch gave the monster a momentum filled kick, causing it to somehow explode once she returned to her swing. “Once 'Card Trooper' is destroyed, I'm allowed to draw a card.” Jaden declared grabbing a card from the top of his deck.

“But don't forget, that piercing effect means you took damage even though your monster was in defense mode.” Dennis reminded.

**Jaden's LP: 8000 - > 6000**

“I think that will be enough for now.” Dennis concluded, “I end my turn, but I assure you, this show has only just begun.”

“Okay then, I draw.” Jaden declared drawing another card and looking at it, 'Neo-Spacian Flare Scarab'.

“Need a boost?” A duel spirit from inside the cards asked.

“Not yet.” he whispered back to the card, “But thanks for offering.” He then grabbed a different card from his hand saying, “I'll activate a field spell, 'Fallen Skyscraper'!” As he slipped the card into his duel disk, the surrounding around them changed, it now resembling a huge city with skyscrapers everywhere... but everything was torn up, glass was shattered everywhere, and many of the building had fire in them, with smoke pouring out.

The crowd seemed scared by the change in appearance, one boy even asking his mother what was happening, leading her to tell him that everything was alright and that none of it was real. Dennis meanwhile thought about the card played and mentally compared it to the data he was able to find on Jaden. ' _This has got to be an alternate version of his regular 'Skyscraper' field spell, meaning it has got to have an effect that can make his Evil Hero monsters stronger._ ' Dennis thought as he looked down at one of the two cards in his hand, ' _Which means I probably should have powered up Trapeze Witch with 'One-shot Wand' instead of saving it for latter. Okay, this could be an issue._ '

“Now I activate the spell card 'Dark Fusion'!” Jaden declared, “With this I will fuse the Elemental Heroes Burstinatrix and Bubbleman in my hand together.” The two heroes appeared next to him and went into a Darkened Fusion vortex as he chanted, “ _Heroes of flaming might and aquatic gadgets, combine as one as you vent your anger out on those foolish enough to stand against you! Dark Fusion! Rise Up! Level 5! Evil HERO Vapor Cutter!_ ” Coming out of this darkened fusion vortex seemed to be nothing but pure steam at first, until compresses into a form resembling a woman.

**Evil HERO Vapor Cutter... Attribute:Water, Type:Fiend, Level:5, ATK:1800 DEF:1000**

“Thanks to the effect of 'Fallen Skyscraper',” Jaden said, “Whenever I fusion summon by the effect of 'Dark Fusion', I get to draw a card.” He drew his card and smirked as he saw it. “Now I normal summon 'Evil Hero Infernal Gainer'!” The new evil hero appeared next to Vapor Cutter smiling like it was about to rip someone's head off.

**Evil HERO Infernal Gainer... Attribute:Earth, Type:Fiend, Level:4, ATK:1600 DEF:0**

“Now by banishing Infernal Gainer until my second standby phase I can use it's effect.” Jaden declared as the monster vanished, “With this, Vapor Cutter will be allowed to attack twice during each battle phase. Furthermore, since Vapor Cutter has less attack points then your Trapeze Witch, my skyscraper can give her an extra 1000 attack points during the battle. Go! Vapor Cutter attack Trapeze Witch! Steam Slash Strike!” The monster obeyed and lunged at the Witch, who in retaliation swing up to counter attack.

“Hold on.” Dennis stated, “Thanks to the effect of Trapeze Witch, your monster looses 600 attack points.”

“Not today.” Jaden Countered, “You need to target Vapor Cutter for that effect to work, but thanks to 'Dark Fusion' she can't be targeted by card effects this turn, leaving her in the clear, and your witch out of magic.” As he said that, Vapor Cutter was able to get the upper hand in the midair fusion monster clash and sliced Trapeze Witch in two causing her to disperse into gold dust.

**Evil HERO Vapor Cutter... ATK:1800 - > 2800**

**Dennis's LP: 8000 - > 7600**

**Evil HERO Vapor Cutter... ATK:2800 - > 1800**

“And that's not all.” Jaden continued as his fusion monster went to his side putting a 'hand' on his shoulder, “When Vapor Cutter defeats a monster in battle, I gain life points equal to either the attack or defense of that destroyed monster, whichever is higher.” a green aura appeared around him briefly as his life points went up.

**Jaden's LP: 6000 - > 8400**

“And don't forget, Infernal Gainer gave Vapor here the ability to attack twice.” Jaden reminded, “So Vapor, Direct attack!” He then declared as his monster shot forward again.

“Hold on there.” Dennis said as he addressed to one of the two pillars beside him, “I'm activating the pendulum effect of my 'Preformage Bubble Gardna'!”

“More of those effects?” Jaden asked.

“Yep,” Dennis answered, “But while Fire Dancer's was offensive, Bubble Gardna's is defensive, allowing me to half battle damage coming at me once per turn.” He then clarified as a bubble appeared around him to deflect Vapor Cutter's attack.

**Dennis's LP: 7600 - > 6700**

“I end my turn.” Jaden concluded.

“And now it is time for this show to really get itself going!” Dennis proclaimed as he went to draw a card. “I Draw!” The entertainer then quickly went over the cards on the field, ' _That Fallen Skyscraper didn't boost his monster's attack points any more then the regular Skyscraper did. So, if it is suppose to have an improved version of it's original effect like how his Evil Heroes work, it will probably give that boost when I attack it as well as opposed to just when he attacks me. If that's the case..._ ' Dennis smiled, “Since I still have my pendulum scales set up, I'll Pendulum Summon!” As he said that, another hole appeared in the sky between the two pillars, only now two beams of light came out as Dennis introduced them. “From my hand, 'Preformage Hat Tricker' makes a cameo, while 'Preformage Water Dancer' revives from my extra deck for an encore performance.”

**Preformage Hat Tricker... Attribute:Earth, Type:Spellcaster, Level:4, ATK:1100 DEF:1100**

**Preformage Water Dancer... Attribute:Water, Type:Spellcaster/Pendulum, Level:4, ATK:1200 DEF:1400**

The crowed seemed speechless as what just happened as Jaden widened his eyes, “Wait, 'revives from the extra deck'? How did-?” Jaden brought up his duel disk to look at the field and rewinding the visual display a turn, sure enough, Water Dancer was in the Extra Deck, face-up even.

“Surprise.” Dennis said smirking, “Pendulum summoning is more then just a way to get out a bunch of monsters easier.” He then rose his voice a litter and addressed to Water Dancer saying, “You see, much like my Bubble Gardna and my Fire Dancer, Water Dancer is a Pendulum monster. Not only dose that mean I also have the option of using her to set Pendulum scales if she were in my hand, but when she is on the field and to be sent to the Graveyard, rather it be by destruction or as material for a summon, she will go to my extra deck face-up, where pendulum monsters can be pendulum summon almost just like they were in my hand.”

Jaden then spoke softly enough that only his cards could hear him, “Yo, anyone knew about this pendulum summoning and that it can revive monsters for free?”

Flare Scarab answered back, “Not me, nor do I think any of the others knew about this. This Pendulum summoning is either really old and really well hidden until recently, or it was just made recently.”

“Of course,” Dennis said, continuing his turn, “Why should I just stop at these two, when I can combine them into something greater. Namely I'll be using them to build an overlay Network!” Both Preformages then turned into streams of energy, one red and one brown, and then went into a galaxy themed vortex as Dennis chanted, “ _Show must go on! Artisan of the air, swing across the stage with grace! Xyz Summon! Appear now! Rank 4! Prefor_ _mage Trapeze Magician_ _!_ ” Exploding from the vortex was another Trapeze hopping spellcaster, similar to Trapeze witch, and identical to the monster that pulled Jaden to the stage, but now with two yellow Xyz material orbiting around it.

**Preformage Trapeze Magician... Attribute:Light, Type:Spellcaster, Rank:4, ATK:2500 DEF:2000**

' _He's got Xyz too?_ ' Jaden thought, and then smirked. ' _Well this just got even more interesting._ '

Dennis gave a little wink to the audience and said, “I'll keep a lid the details on this summoning mechanic. Got to have this show's star have some secrets set up for his next performance after all.”

Jaden raised an eyebrow at that. “So this is your ace? and Xyz monster?”

Dennis waved a finger at Jaden, “Don't let his summoning status fool you. He more then deserves his place and title in my deck. Your monsters may call themselves heroes, but to any outsider, it is clear that they have fallen far from the high places they started from. Just look at the city your monsters call home. Can you really look at this and say that they are making the place better? Trapeze Magician however is another story, grabbing powers from outside the context of our world, he can rise higher and higher, high enough to take down anything you throw at him.”

Jaden smirked, “Is that so? In that case, do you mind telling me or the audience where you learned the skills for this? After all, I know first hand that Duel Academy doesn't teach it's students how to duel the way you've been so far.”

Dennis returned the smirk, “Sorry, but that will have to wait for another time. After all, we got a Duel going... and I'll equip my Magician with a special wand to give a little bit more punch to his magic, an 800 point punch that is, coming from the 'One-Shot Wand'.” He said as he put the spell in is duel disk, and the wand appeared in the Xyz monster's hand.

**Preformage Trapeze Magician... ATK:2500 - > 3300**

“And that's not all,” Dennis added. “By detaching an Xyz material from Trapeze Magician, it is allowed to attack twice during each battle phase.” As he said that, one of the yellow orbiting Xyz material got absorbed into the wand as the magician glowed. “Now let's go. 'Preformage Trapeze Magician' attacks 'Evil HERO Vapor Cutter'!” He then declared as the Magician leaped off of the swing aiming it's wand to strike down the fusion monster.

“Hang on.” Jaden cuts in. “Thanks to 'Fallen Skyscraper' since your monster has more attack, Vapor Cutter gains an extra 1000 points during this battle.”

“That's not enough.” Dennis replies as his Magician is still able to overpower the Evil Hero, dispersing it.

**Evil HERO Vapor Cutter... ATK:1800 - > 2800**

**Jaden's LP: 8400 - > 7900**

“And don't forget about his second attack!” Dennis then reminded, “Because now he can go in for a direct attack!” The Magician raises it's wand again, to strike down Jaden. While the former academy student was able to catch the attack with his hand, preventing major damage, the monster was strong, and the force of the attack was still able to knock Jaden onto a knee as he winced through the pain.

**Jaden's LP: 7900 - > 4600**

Still wincing and holding the attack, Jaden looked at the Magician saying, “So, do you mind telling me where your boss learned this dueling style?”

There seemed to be a pause as the monster stopped it's attack and the flipped back to his owner's field. Dennis then smiled, “After Damage calculation, as the equipped monster attacked, I can get One-shot wand destroyed to draw a card.” He then said as he drew another card.

**Preformage Trapeze Magician... ATK:3300 - > 2500**

“Furthermore, before the battle phase ends, I'll play the quick-play spell 'Forbidden Dress'.” Dennis continued, “You see at the end of the battle phase, my Magician's effect would unfortunately cause it to destroy itself, but with this card, that won't happen, even if his attack points do go down by 600 for the rest of this turn.”

**Preformage Trapeze Magician... ATK:2500 - > 1900**

“And now I play a different equip spell, 'Mist Body'.” As his magician's body turned to be similar to that of Jaden's destroyed Fusion monster. “This spell will allow my magician to survive any attack you throw at it, no matter how strong your monster is. Your move.” He then concluded, causing the Forbidden Dress to lose it's effect.

**Preformage Trapeze Magician... ATK:1900 - > 2500**

“Than I draw.” Jaden declares, starting his turn and drawing a card. “I'll play the spell card, 'Pot of Greed', so I can draw 2 more cards.” He then states putting the card on his duel disk and doing exactly what he said it would let him do. “And to follow that up,” He continued, “I'll play, 'Supreme Command', so now once per turn, I can add a 'Dark Fusion' from my deck or graveyard to my hand.” and card then slipped out of his deck as he grabbed it to show, “Of which I'll be making use of right now, to fuse my 'Elemental HERO Wild Heart' with my 'Evil HERO Shadow Grave'.” He then states, allowing both monsters to show up next to him before going into another darkened fusion vortex. The Evil Hero duelist then chanted, “ _Phantom of Vengeance, become one with the Hero of the Wild, and show us a new form capable of avenging those who were sent prematurely to the beyond! Go! Dark Fusion! Level 6! Evil HERO Wicked Shaman!_ ” Exploding from the portal, the new fusion monster stood, ready to get climb right over the challenge presented before it.

**Evil HERO Wicked Shaman... Attribute:Dark, Type:Fiend, Level:6, ATK:1900 DEF:1800**

“The effect of Wicked Shaman activates upon it's fusion summon, and because that was a dark fusion, 'Fallen Skyscraper' chains in as well.” Jaden explains. “So first I get to draw a card, and then I can destroy one monster you have out.”

“Wait, you wiping out my Magician right now?” Dennis asked.

“Yeah, If I can't beat it in battle, I'll use an effect.” Jaden said simply, as his fusion monster let loose some form of magic that destroyed the magician. “But, that's not all.” Jaden continued, “After destroying a monster, I can revive a one form your graveyard to my field with it's effect's negated, so I'll take your Force Witch.” As Jaden said that, the fusion monster Dennis summoned beforehand appeared on Jaden's field, looking kinda zombified.

“Well, that's not good, but luckily I'm not done yet.” Dennis said with a grin on his face, “When Trapeze Magician was destroyed, he can call out a pal from my deck to help out with the unfinished job, namely my 'Preformage Plushfire'!” As he said that, a new monster appeared on his field, looking kinda like a stuffed animal... only that of fire instead of an animal.

**Preformage Plushfire... Attribute:Fire, Type:Spellcaster/Pendulum, Level:4, ATK:1000 DEF:1000**

Jaden took a quick look at his duel disk to monitor the locations of cards. ' _So his Water Dancer is in the Graveyard now... guess having it be used as Xyz material won't let it be recycled. Good, now to deal with this new monster of his._ ' He then hit another button on the display and said, “I now activate the first effect of the Shadow Grave in my graveyard, once per duel, while he is in the graveyard, I can preform a dark fusion using monsters on my field.”

Dennis raised an eyebrow at that, “But the only monsters you have to fuse are Wicked Shaman and my Trapeze Witch, no way you could make something using a monster that wasn't even in your deck before. ”

Jaden smirked, “I guess you must have snoozed through a class or two on fusion summoning, because not only is it possible, but I assure you, I can fuse anything together.” As he said that, another darkened fusion vortex appeared, prompting both fusion monsters to go in it as Jaden chanted “ _Fallen Hero, absorb the powers of this Chimera-esq creature to become a magical force that dispels all foes! Go! Dark Fusion! Level 7! Evil HERO Dark Destiny!_ ” Coming out of this Vortex was a new monster, one that gave Dennis pause, because unlike all the previous ones, there was no Elemental Hero Jaden played in the database that this looked like this could be a counterpart too.

**Evil HERO Dark Destiny... Attribute:Dark, Type:Fiend, Level:7, ATK:2500 DEF:2000**

“And this is only the beginning.” Jaden continued, “Because this fusion summon was treated as a fusion summon caused by dark fusion, 'Fallen Skyscraper' can let me draw another card.” He stated as he drew again “ And now, Shadow Grave's second effect can now activate. If I control an Evil HERO monster, I can normal summon any level 5 or higher 'HERO' monster without any tributes once per duel, so come on out! Evil HERO Malicious Edge!” Another HERO appeared on the field, the strongest of all of Jaden's main deck monsters had arrived once again.

**Evil HERO Malicious Edge... Attribute:Earth, Type:Fiend, Level:7, ATK:2600 DEF:1800**

“And if you thought it was bad now, It just got worse for you.” Jaden said as he motioned toward his Fusion monster, “Once per turn, when I summon a HERO monster, Dark Destiny can banish any monster you have out on your field.”

Dennis's eyes widened at that. “Say what?” As he saw his Plushfire get sucked into a black hole created by Jaden's fusion monster.

Jaden looked at his monitor once again, and smiled once he saw that Plushfire was, in fact, in the banished zone and not in the extra deck. “Now I'll use Dark Destiny's second effect. Once per turn, I can banish any spell card from your graveyard to give him 500 extra attack point and deal 500 points of damage to you.” As he said that 'One-Shot wand' appeared in Dark Destiny's hand and got absorbed, boosting his strength while sending a ball of energy at Dennis to hurt him.

**Evil HERO Dark Destiny... ATK:2500 - > 3000**

**Dennis's LP: 6700 - > 6200**

“And I still haven't gone into my Battle Phase yet.” Jaden reminded. “And your wide open, Dark Destiny, direct attack!” As he said that the monster then charged up and sent a magical beam of energy at Dennis.

Dennis replied by holding his hand up the Bubble Gardna in his Pendulum zone. “Not exactly, don't forget, with Bubble Gardna' effect, I can half the damage!” He said as the pendulum bound monster created another bubble around him to save him from the attack.

**Dennis's LP: 6200 - > 4700**

“But that effect is only once per turn,” Jaden reminded, “and I have another attack right here. Malicious Edge, Go! Needle Burst!” The monster replied by firing out sharp-knife like objects at Dennis, none-hitting anywhere fatal, but it did tear through some clothes.

**Dennis's LP: 4700 - > 2100**

“And now I play a Quick-play spell card.” Jaden said, grabbing another card from his hand. “'Sebek's Blessing', so I gain life points equal to the damage inflicted.” Jaden declared as his life points went up.

**Jaden's LP: 4600 - > 7200**

“I end my turn.” Jaden said. “You're up.”

“Very well then, I draw.” Dennis declared drawing a card. He then looked down at it and smiled, “Well, this was a good top deck, I activate 'Last Ditch Effort', this card's effect allowed me to shuffle my non-existent hand back into the deck and then draw 6 new cards.”

“Ah Shoot.” Jaden muttered to himself... knowing that card can potentially change any situation around in an instant.

“You ready everyone!” Dennis calls out to the crowd, “Let's see if my new 6 cards can turn it around against these former heroes.” The crowed roared waiting to see what cards will play once they are drawn. “Of course, because I played Last Ditch effort, I am not allowed to set any cards this turn, and any cards I don't use are shuffled back into my deck during the end phase. So if they can't help me out right now, they are dead draws.” He then smiled, “So let's see what they ARE!” He declared as he drew 6 new cards.

' _Not good._ ' Jaden though to himself, ' _With Pendulum summoning, almost any monster he drew can get out onto the field. So even if it can't help him out immediately, he will still have a resurrecting wall of monsters he can use to stall until he get's something helpful._ '

Dennis rose an eyebrow when he saw the cards he drew. ' _Not a single monster? Weird. Aw well, this hand should do... somewhat._ ' He then grabbed a card from the new hand and said, “Now then, let's bring back an old pal, shall we. I'll let Trapeze Magician shine once more with the help of my 'Rank-up-Magic Phoenix Empowerment'!”

“Rank-up-Magic!?” Jaden repeated, thinking ' _I thought only people from the Xyz dimension were good enough with Xyz to use Rank-up-Magic. Just how much time did this guy spend working there to get Rank-Up-Magic down?_ '

“Thanks to Phoenix Empowerment, I can bring back any Rank 4 or lower Xyz monster from my graveyard.” Dennis explained, “So return for an encore 'Preformage Trapeze Magician'!” As he said that, the Trapeze swinging magician from before came right back onto the field, soaring over the audience and dancing all over the field. “Oh, and remember what I said earlier about him being able to raise higher and higher?”

“Let me guess.” Jaden cut in, “He's about to demonstrate that right now thanks to your Rank-Up-Magic allowing you to use it for an Xyz summon of a monster with a higher rank.”

Dennis blinked a bit in mock surprise, “Oh My, clearly you must have obtained mind reading abilities, because that's exactly what is about to happen!” He then resumed his confident smile saying, “ But not even that will allow you to allow your fallen heroes to continue their tyranny. Let's go Trapeze Magician!” He then declared as the revived Xyz monster turned into a yellow steam of energy that traveled back into a new overlay network. “ _Show must go on! Oh_ _magician of the sky_ _, more magnificently, more vividly, run across the even greater stage! Rank-Up Xyz Change! Appear now! Rank 5! Prefor_ _mage Trapeze High Magician_ _!_ ” Exploding from the new vortex was what appeared to be the same magician as before, but with a fancier outfit, and a much more notable magical aura around him, as well as 2 new yellow Xyz material orbiting around it, one being Trapeze Magician, and the other being the Rank-Up-Magic card.

**Preformage Trapeze High Magician... Attribute:Light, Type:Spellcaster, Rank:5, ATK:2700 DEF:2200**

“And now for not one, but TWO additional Equip spells!” Dennis declared, putting two more cards on his field, “'Mage Power' and 'Magician's Life Force'!” As he said that the glowing magical Aura of High Magician glowed brighter. “Thanks to 'Magician's Life Force', my High Magician can't be destroyed or targeted by card effects once per turn, and any battle damage inflicted in battles involving it are added to my life points. Furthermore thanks to 'Mage Power' High Magician gains 500 attack and defense points for every spell or trap card I have out on the field.”

“So it has protection, can boost your life points, and gets 1000 points stronger.” Jaden summarized, “No big deal.”

Dennis smirked, “Are you sure about that?” Before Jaden could ask what he meant, Dennis snapped his fingers, and the holographic attack and defense meters for High Magician showed up.

**Preformage Trapeze High Magician... ATK:2700 - > 4700**

**Preformage Trapeze High Magician... DEF:2200 - > 4200**

“What the-? 2000? How?” Jaden asked, trying to figure it out, “That requires 4 spell or Trap cards out, and 'Last Ditch Effort' keeps you from setting any cards, So you should only have your 2 Equip spells.”

Dennis's smirk went straight to a full on grin, “Not exactly, I do have other cards on my field as well you know.”

Jaden frowned as he tried to figure it out, “But besides the Preformage your equipping them to the only other cards you have out are-” He cut himself off and widened his eyes as it clicked.

Dennis addressed to the two blue pillars on his field, “That's right folks! In addition to being a gateway for other monsters and being creatures with unlimited resurrection potential, Pendulum monsters can also leave their bodies behind and become magic itself! While they have been in my pendulum scales my Bubble Gardna and Fire Dancer were treated as spell cards this whole time! Giving me a total of 4 spells on my field!” The Crowd cheered, finding the concept of Monsters that were also spells amazing, but Dennis raised a hand to get them to quiet down. “Now please, lets wait just a bit more, after all, my Magician isn't done showing you just how much stronger he is now.” As he said that, a yellow Xyz material got absorbed into the Magicians trapeze swing, “Not only has his stats gone up, but so has the strength of his special ability, with that overlay unit detached, he can now attack, not once, not just twice, but a whole THREE times this turn!”

' _Three attacks on a monster with that much attack points?_ ' Jaden thought to himself, ' _Oh, Bleep._ '

“First up! High Magician, attacks 'Evil HERO Dark Destiny'!” Dennis declared as his monster left from the swing straight at the fusion monster.

Jaden braced himself, “Not so fast! Because your monster is stronger then mine, 'Fallen Skyscraper' gives it an extra 1000 attack points, furthermore, I can also use Dark Destiny's effect, and banish the 'Mist Body' in your Graveyard to power him up by another 500 attack points and deal 500 points of damage to you.” His Fusion monster gained a black aura around it as it powered up and leaped at the incoming Xyz monster. Sadly, the clash wasn't long, as the magician quickly got the upper hand against the Evil Hero and turned it into golden dust.

**Evil HERO Dark Destiny... ATK:3000 - > 3500 -> 4500**

**Dennis's LP: 2100 - > 1600**

**Jaden's LP: 7200 - > 7000**

“Don't forget about 'Magician's Life Force',” Dennis reminded “when you take damage, I heal.”

**Dennis's LP: 1600 - > 1800**

Jaden grit his teeth, “Because an Evil HERO fusion monster was destroyed, 'Supreme Command' lets me add one of it's fusion material monsters from my graveyard to my hand. However, the only fusion material monster in my graveyard is Wicked Shaman, being a fusion monster, that means it goes back to my extra deck instead.”

“That's nice and all, but now it is time for the second attack!” Dennis declared as his monster went from air, to Trapeze swing to air again, now headed for Jaden's only other monster. “High Magician attacks Malicious Edge!”

“'Fallen Skyscraper' gives Malicious Edge 1000 extra attack points.” Jaden pointed out, as his monster seemed to make some of it's spikes grow into swords as it lunged at the Magician. However, like it's ally, the Clash would be short, and Malicious Edge would be turned into gold dust.

**Evil HERO Malicious Edge... ATK:2600 - 3600**

**Jaden's LP: 7000 - > 5900**

**Dennis's LP: 1800 - > 2900**

“And here is attack Number THREE! High Magician attack Jaden directly!” Dennis declared. With no monster left, Jaden had no choice but to take this attack full force, as the monster knocked him back and almost clear off the stage.

**Jaden's LP: 5900 - > 1200**

**Dennis's LP: 2900 - > 7600**

Dennis sighed, “Due to the effect of 'Last Ditch Effort', during the end phase, all cards left in my hand have to be shuffled back to the deck.” He then saw the last 3 cards he drew; 'Mage's Fortress', 'Pinch Breaker', and 'Trick Box' and put them back into his deck. “Your Move.”

“Sorry that I can't be much help here.” Flare Scarab said, “As of now, I am the only card in your hand, but my effect is nowhere near enough to help you get past this magician.”

“That's fine.” Jaden replied, speaking quiet enough so only the duel spirit could hear, “After all, it typically takes more then 1 card anyway to wrap something up anyway.” He then made a move to draw a card as he thought to himself ' _and I better wrap it up this turn. First Pendulum, then Xyz, then Rank-up. if I let him get another turn, no doubt it will come with another surprise, one that will probably finish me off._ ' It also wasn't to hard for the former Academy student to imagine Dennis carding him on stage should he loose, and then play it as a part of the show. Jaden's eyes then glowed their golden glow as a dark aura appeared around him, “I Draw!” He declared drawing a card.

The crowed started muttering to each other wondering what was up with Jaden's visible aura or the golden glow in his eyes. Picking up on this, Dennis decided to incorporate it into the show, “Well well well. It looks like it is time for you to pull out your final effort, isn't it Jaden?” He then turned to the crowed saying, “Get ready everyone, because it looks like the climax of the duel is upon us! These tricks only show up when my pal is really ready to give it everything he's got.” He then turned back to Jaden saying, “But seeing how much of a disadvantage you are at right now, it might just be to little to late Jaden.”

Jaden smirked, “We'll see about that. First things first, this is the second standby phase after I banished 'Evil HERO Infernal Gainer' for it's effect, so that means he can finally come right back to my field.” As he said that, the mid-sized Evil Hero from two turns ago re-appeared on his field once again. “Now, I'll activate the effect of 'Supreme Command' and add my third 'Dark Fusion' from my deck to my hand.” A card ejected itself from Jaden's duel disk as he grabbed it. “And then I'll play this, 'Legacy of a HERO'! This card lets me take two fusion monsters in my graveyard and return them to my extra deck as long as they require HERO monsters as fusion material.” He briefly explained as Vapor Cutter and Dark Destiny briefly appeared on his field before getting sucked into his extra deck slot, “And when I do so, I'm then allowed to draw three cards.” He then concluded, drawing three more cards from his deck, he then smirked when he saw them, “I win.”

Dennis raised an eyebrow at that, “Really, I find that hard to believe considering the current field. My High Magician has nearly 5000 attack points, and you can't defeat it with card effects, plus even if you get over it through battle, I can re-gain whatever life points I loose from the battle, and half-damage at that to ensure I survive long enough to re-gain those life points.”

“Most of that won't matter after this one card.” Jaden replies, “And to activate it, I'll discard the 'Dark Fusion' in my hand.” He then says, discarding the card as a windstorm seems to be created around him.

' _He's ditching his method to fusion summon?_ ' Dennis mentally asked, as the crowed started to mutter having all there attention on Jaden right now.

Noticing the crowed attention on him, Jaden decided to raise his voice a bit for the audience, “Get ready everyone, as I am about to show you all the highest level of fusion summoning possible to be preformed! Completely unstoppable when started, when used correctly, this power can lead one to an absolute victory!” He then grabbed the card from his hand and slapped it onto his duel disk. “I activate, 'Super Dark Fusion'!” As he played it, the windstorm grew stronger as black lightning seemed to form and flow around Jaden.

“'Super Dark Fusion'!” Dennis repeated, having never saw anything like that card in Jaden's dueling data, though it did remind him of another card a certain comrade of his played on occasion.

“Remember when I said I can fuse anything together?” Jade asked rhetorically, “That was not an exaggeration, as this card lets me use the High Magician on your field for a fusion summon with the Infernal Gainer on mine.”

“Say what?” Dennis replied. It really was like Yuri's card.

The Xyz monster was the sucked up into a super strong fusion vortex that Infernal Gainer just casually walked into as Jaden chanted, “ _Fallen Hero, merge with this vessel of anti-matter, and use it's power to take on a new form and power! Go! Dark Fusion! Level 7! Wipe them Out! Evil HERO Dimensional Destroyer!_ ” Coming from this fusion vortex was a bat winged Humanoid holding a spear, and ready to end it all.

**Evil HERO Dimensional Destroyer... Attribute:Dark, Type:Fiend, Level:7, ATK:2500 DEF:2000**

“Whoa,” said someone from the audience, with another saying, “These kids are incredible duelists.”

Jaden smirked at hearing those words, something about them felt nice, “'Super Dark Fusion' treats it's summon as the same as 'Dark Fusion', because of that 'Fallen Skyscraper' let's me draw another card. Furthermore, thanks to the effect of Dimensional Destroyer, upon summon, I can banish all the monsters in your graveyard that have a level or rank equal to or less then the rank of the monster I used for it's Fusion summon, and then it gains 300 attack points for each one.” Ghostly images of Dennis's Water Dancer, String Figure, Hat Tricker, Trapeze Magician and Trapeze High Magician all appeared on Jaden's field, before they all turned into smoke and absorbed into the evil hero's spear.

**Evil HERO Dimensional Destroyer... ATK:2500 - > 4000**

“And I'm not done yet.” Jaden continued, “I still haven't Normal summoned yet, so say hello to my favorite golden boy, 'Elemental HERO Sparkman'!” As he said that, the electrical hero emerged forth, ready to fight.

**Elemental HERO Sparkman... Attribute:Light, Type:Warrior, Level:4, ATK:1600 DEF:1400**

“And crew is still coming in, because I target Sparkman to activate 'Common Soul'! So I can special summon 'Neo-Spacian Flare Scarab' to my field.” He then added as the Flaming Betel-esq alien appeared on his Field.

**Neo-Spacian Flare Scarab... Attribute:Fire, Type:Insect, Level:3, ATK:500 DEF:500**

“Now here's the fun part.” The Hero duelist explained “Thanks to Common Soul, Sparkman get's attack points equal to whatever Flare Scarab's attack points are. Including any boost Flare Scarab gets, and his effect grants him an extra 400 attack points for every Spell or Trap card on your field.”

“And my pendulum cards are treated as spells right now.” Dennis realized.

“Bingo.” Jaden replied.

**Neo-Spacian Flare Scarab... ATK:500 - > 1300**

**Elemental HERO Sparkman... ATK:1600 - > 2900**

Dennis then smirked, “Well, done Jaden.” He congratulated, “But I think you miscalculated, while the combined attack points your monsters have assembled are greater then my life points, The effect of my Bubble Gardna can still be used to half damage from one of your attacks. I haven't lost yet.”

“Are you sure about that.” Jaden said expression never changing. “Battle! Flare Scarab, go for a direct attack! Flame Bullet!” Jaden commanded.

“No Problem.” The alien replied, even though only Jaden could hear him, as he launched a stream of fire right at Dennis.

Dennis braced himself for the flames, not bothering to use Bubble Gardna yet, as it would be better to save it for the strongest attack.

**Dennis's LP: 7600 - > 6300**

“Sparkman, your turn.” Jaden followed up, as the Electrical Hero charged up his lightning. At the same time Flare Scarab, summoned more flames that went around Sparkman and seemed to make the attack infused with both fire and lightning. “Flaming Shockwave!” Jaden then called out, giving a name to the combined attack as it shot forward right to Dennis.

**Dennis's LP: 6300 - > 3400**

“See what I mean.” Dennis then said, “Your monster will need at least 6800 attack points to finish me off through Bubble Gardna's effect. It falls to short.”

“No, this is fine.” Jaden says as he holds up the last card in his hand “After all, I still have this card to play.” He then flipped it around to reveal it, “The Quick-Play spell, 'Mystical Space Typhoon'!”

“What!?” Dennis replied, in slight disbelief that THAT card is coming into play at THIS time.

“If your pendulum cards are treated as spells right now.” Jaden stated as he put the card in his duel disk and let the miniature typhoon appear. “Then it has the weaknesses of one, meaning this card can destroy it.” As if to confirm Jaden's statement, a lightning bolt came down electrocuting the Preformage monster in the blue pillar, causing it to explode into gold dust, and prompt the blue pillar it was on, as well the the number below Fire Dancer, to vanish.

“But this means-” Dennis started, but couldn't finish.

“- that my Dimensional Destroyer has more then enough attack power to wrap this up.” Jaden said, sure, the loss of the pendulum scale meant Flare Scarab and Sparkman's attack points went down, but at this point, that didn't matter. “Direct Attack! Antimatter Oblivion!” He then called out, as his fusion monster raised it's spear in the air, creating a huge dark sphere at the end of it, and the monster threw it down to Dennis field, causing it to explode right on top of him, and taking out the rest of his life points.

**Dennis's LP: 3400 - > 0**

The Holograms faded, as did Jaden's dark Aura and golden glow in his eyes. “And that's game.” Jaden said, he then walked up to Dennis, “I was being serious when I asked where you learned to duel like that, by the way.” He stated, “It's clear that you pulled from somewhere other then Duel Academy teaching for your dueling style. Mind sharing it?”

Dennis then looked up to Jaden, before grimacing for a second as he then back flipped his way a few feet. He then put on a fake smile and said, “Sorry, but a good magician never reveals his secrets.” He then turned to the audience saying, “Well folks, I'm afraid that brings us the conclusion of our show. So lets give a round of applause for our duel's winner!” The crowd gave cheers just as asked, having enjoyed the duel. “And now it is time I give you all a found farewell for now. Until next time, whenever that may be.” Dennis said.

“Wait a minute.” Jaden said, as he turned and tried to reach Dennis. But there was no time, Dennis snapped his fingers, and in a puff of smoke, he was gone. “Man he is good with that magic stuff.” Jaden then commented. He then looked to the crowd and waved a bit before walking off the stage, thinking to himself, ' _Well, at least I got something out f this. Dennis's dueling felt different, if I could find the source to give me a non-duel-academy diluted taste of it, it could help me reverse what happened to my deck._ ' He then smirked a bit as he started to head back to where his friends are. ' _And while Dennis himself didn't want to help point me in the direction I need to go for that, I did at least get a name that should help._ ' He could probably get everyone's help in finding the guy off of a name... probably ' _Yusho Sakaki, you better polish off your deck, because once I am done with Duel Academy, I'm going to come for a visit, wherever you are._ '

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh Boy was this duel a pain.... why was it a pain? you may ask. Well, simply put, Konami is the reason why.  
> You see one of the rules I impose on myself when writing duels is to limit how many anime and OC cards are used unless necessary, as you may be able to tell by this story being the only time so far I used OC cards in bulk, or the lack of anime exclusive cards in most of my stories.  
> But Dennis here didn't have many of his Preformage monsters released to the irl card game.... among the missing cards includes just about every Preformage he used in this duel outside of his Rank 4 Xyz. So it pained me because I had to actively break that rule of mine for a story where the concept of the story didn't require it to (contrasting Jaden getting OC Evil Hero cards, because the concept was showing off Jaden with an Evil Hero deck, which still needed a lot more cards to it then what we got officially).  
> Anyway, it is over and done with, next chapter: "Change of Plans"


	4. Change of Plans

“Sorry, Jaden. I can't quite help with that.”

“Really? you seem to be able to be of help with just about anything.” Jaden asked.

“Because so far, the things that needed help were things I could help with.” Bastion replied, “Duel strategies, and general plans are one thing, but finding someone based off of just a name is another. Especially as that person might not even live in this dimension.”

The former Slifer sighed at that, “Good point.” It had been a couple days since his duel with Dennis, and he was now bringing up the idea of finding Yusho Sakaki to Bastion. Unfortunately, for all of Bastion's talents, finding specific people based off of vague hints was not one of them. “Any idea how I should go about finding him once all the Duel Academy stuff is over?”

The white wearing intellectual then put a hand to his chin and thought for a bit, before saying, “If Dennis did learn dueling strategies from this man, it's very likely that there is data on his somewhere in the Duel Academy servers.” He then offered, “However, there is no guarantee that the data would be helpful in finding him, and no one in our group has any hacking skills that could even give us a chance of getting into the servers right now.”

Jaden shrugged, “That's fine. It is at least a possible direction I could go latter.”

Bastion sighed, “I suppose so. Why are you interested in finding him anyway?”

“Trapeze Magician stated that he is the one who influenced Dennis's dueling style into that... ” he paused for a moment, trying to find a word, “Not-quite-duel-academy style. I figured of he could take someone loyal to Academia and do that to them. Then anyone like us that recognize that they are messed up and want to find an alternative approach to dueling could...”

Bastion smirked, seeing where that sentence was going. “I take it your hoping that he could help turn your deck back to the way it was in a way similar to how Duel Academy unintentionally twisted it? Through your special connection with your duel spirits.”

Jaden found himself scratching the back of his head at that, “Yeah, you got me.”

“Well, we could all probably join you on that.” Bastion replied, “After all, Academia effected all of us, you are just the most obvious. Once we can stop it from hurting others, fixing ourselves up should be the next thing on the to-do list.”

The Hero duelist smiled at that, “Yeah, sounds like a plan. After all, it's not like this whole Duel Academy situation is just going to get resolved all by itself.”

At that moment, the ground violently shook, for a good 5 seconds, causing both Bastion and Jaden to loose there balance and fall to the floor. “What in the-” Bastion began.

Syrus then poked his head around the corner to ask, “Did anyone say anything that might have jinked that? Maybe something like 'nothing could could knock something over' or 'unless something unexpected happens'? Or anything like that?”

Jaden thought for a moment, “Unless that earthquake has something to do with our Duel Academy issue resolving itself... I don't think so.” A second thought then occurred to him, “We should probably make sure everyone is okay.”

“Good Idea.” Bastion agreed.

Thankfully, their current base wasn't to big, so no one had to go far to see if anyone needed any help, and everyone was in a good position and didn't get caught any unlucky places because of the Earthquake... except for Chazz, who kept insisting that he didn't need any help moving the bookcase that trapped him. Jaden and Jesse helped anyway. “I would have gotten it eventually.” Chazz continued to complain.

“Well, now your out now instead.” Syrus quipped.

“Guys, you might want to come see this.” They heard Tryanno call out.

Jaden had a small pause upon hearing that. Why did Tryanno sound so worried there? Did duel Academy show up again for another round? Going out the door to where Hasslebery was, Jaden was about to ask what it was, until he saw it. He didn't quite know how to describe it, but it seemed like there were holes in the Sky, showing different places that Jaden didn't recognize, also, the area around them looked distorted, like someone was playing with an image in a photo editor. “What in the world?” Was all Jaden could say about it.

Syrus let out a gasp as he fell onto his rear looking at one particular spot in the sky, “T-That's...”

“Yo, Sy, what is it?” Jaden responded knelling down to reach eye level with his friend.

“H-Heartland.” Syrus said, pointing at one hole in the sky that showed a ruined city on the other side. “That's Heartland city right there.”

“That place in Xyz that Academia invaded?” Chazz replied.

“Yeah,” Syrus answered eyes never leaving the sight of the ruined city, “that's Heartland, no doubt about it.”

“But that's literally in another dimension.” Jesse stated, not quite getting what was going on.

“Then clearly these holes must be windows into the other dimensions, or something of the sort.” Bastion concluded. “But to see them here... like this.”

Tryanno spoke up next, “Something tells me this may be apart of why Duel Academy was so lax in rounding us up.”

“You saying that this is their doing?” Chazz questioned.

Tyranno turned to him saying, “That's my guess, after all, if this is part of their endgame, the Professor may not want to waste much resources rounding us up when they were this close to reaching his goal.”

Another earthquake shook through the area, and Jesse heard a crash somewhere off in the distance. “Caused by Duel Academy or not, whatever is happening is putting a lot of people in danger, we got to do something.” He then stated.

“Yeah,” Jaden said, “We should probably get out our Duel Disks as well and-” he cut himself off, an unexpected felling overcame him... a monster was just summoned, a strong one.

“Uh, did anyone else feel that?” Chazz said.

“Feel what?” Syrus asked, finally getting his eyes away from the sight of Heartland.

“Like someone just summoned a monster as strong as 'Cyber End Dragon'.” Jesse said.

“No,” Jaden said, “'Cyber End Dragon' only gives off this feeling in your a duel field away from it.” He clarified, “The farther away you get, the weaker the feeling gets. Whatever was summoned is some distance away, or we'd be able to see it. To give 'Cyber End Dragon' levels of power from a distance...”

“Bad news, got it.” Syrus summed up.

Another earthquake came through. “People are in trouble,” Jaden reminded himself, “Okay, everyone get your duel disks, call out your monsters to help get everyone to safety. I'm going to go see what that monster is and see if it or whoever summoned it is connected to all the weird stuff going on.”

“Got it, Sarge.” Tyranno said, “But uhh, how are you going to find the monster?”

“Simple,” Jaden said, “I make use of whatever weird duel monster-sense I have that lets me tell that it was summoned, and walk around seeing if I get hot or cold...” He then pulled card out of his extra-deck slot as his eyes glowed gold, “or fly around, as a bird's eye view is better.” He then held the card up to some open air and said, “Wild Cyclone! Give me a hand!” Jaden then declared, and despite it not going onto a duel disk, a dark aura erupted from the card, shooting out and taking the form of what appeared to be a fusion between the Elemental Heroes Avian and Wildheart.

“Whew,” Jesse replied, “I think that's the first time I saw you summon a monster without using a duel disk.”

“Stunning to see.” Bastion replied, “But we have work to do, so admiring the ability will have to wait.”

“Lets get going.” Chazz stated pulling out dis duel disk from his jacket.

“Good Luck.” Jaden said as Wild Cyclone picked him up and lifted him into the air, his friends would be able to take care of things down there, they all had good monsters and experience using them in non-dueling situations. They would be fine, he just needed to focus on whatever that unknown monster was. It could be an ally in saving everyone, or it might need to be defeated to stop what ever was going on. Didn't take him long to find it though, once Wild Cyclone got him high enough to see the neighboring city, he caught sight of a humongous dragon, that seemed to be commanding red-lightning, to strike the immediate area. “Well, I guess it's not here to save people from this disaster...” Jaden said to himself, “Wait, it's literally a whole city away?” To feel as much power as he did from that dragon from as far away as it was... he had trouble imagining how strong it actually is. He then turned to his monster, “So, how fast can you go?”

The monster replied by showing rather then telling, launching straight at the direction of the dragon at top speed with Jaden hanging on. However, the distance still made it take a while, and after a minute or two, something struck out and hit the duel monster, striking a wing. One wing down, he started to fall. Acting on it's own, it turned around to put itself between the ground and it's only passenger. Barreling through trees and eventually hitting the ground.

“Aw man, what was that?” Jaden said getting up, before seeing his monster's injured state, “Oh, Man, that had got to hurt, thanks for the save pal.” He then pulled out the monster's card again saying, “Here, take a rest, you got me most of the way, I can take it from here.” The monster nodded, turning into a dark mist that flowed back into the card. Jaden then looked up, seeing another dimensional window, but instead of showing another dimension, it gave a better view of the dragon... that seemed to be dueling? “It's both a monster and a duelist? Okay, I guess that can sorta work.” Jaden commented to himself, recalling how his duel spirits said that they could duel themselves if given a physical body outside of a duel... why it never worked if he gave him the body with his power is something they never quite figured out.

“Gotta hurry.” He told himself as rushed off to find where the dueling dragon was, the city was far from evacuated, but thankfully it didn't seem like to many people were having trouble steering clear. As he got himself to a clearing, he was able to see the dragon a lot better without using one of the dimensional windows, but he also saw that huge chunks of the other dimensions were appearing as floating islands in the sky. “That can't be good.” he noted. At that moment, a beam of energy came launching at him. Jaden dodged, but there was an explosion and a small crater where he was. “And neither can that.” He quipped before looking in the direction the beam came from. He saw an adult man, wearing a purple coat that looked expensive yet tethered and an Academia duel disk on his arm, next to him, was an Ancient Gear Howitzer, smoke coming from one of the monsters blasters. “Hey, what's the big idea? There's a giant dragon causing mayhem and it needs to be stopped. Why are you firing at me?” Jaden called out.

“Perfect, a rouge.” The man said. “That will do perfectly.”

“What are you talking about?” Jaden asked.

“Carding a rouge and presenting it to the professor will certainly convince him I am still an ally.” The man said, but it didn't seem like he was addressing Jaden.

“You have gone nuts haven't you?” Jaden said, “I'm pretty sure dealing with the giant dragon causing destruction and endangering lives should have a higher priory then that.”

“Howitzer!” He declared, prompting the monster to fire more blasts of energy at Jaden.

“I have no time for this.” He stated, as he dodged the attack and tried to get out of the area and to where the dragon is. However, before he got to far, a bast hit a building causing a chunk of it to fall down and black his path. Jaden grit his teeth as he looked at the man, “Guess I'll have to make time then.” He pulled his duel disk from his jacket and put it on, engaging the duel mode.

“ _Duel mode engaged._ ” Came a digital voice from the man's duel disk as the monster faded. The man's expression didn't seem to change any, as he continued to talk, “and once I am back on graces with the professor again, I am back on track to making my own kingdom.”

' _This guy is a total loon_ ' Jaden thought to himself, ' _but he is stopping me from being able to do something about that dragon, so I'll need to get through him first._ ' He then checked his duel disk to see info on his opponent. ' _Jean-Michel Roget, huh? Well, I have no idea who he is. Aw well, time to get my game on._ '

“Ready?” Jaden asked... and got a raised duel disk in reply, “Okay then.”

“ **DUEL!”**

“I'll start things off.” Roget stated as he grabbed a card from his hand. “And I'll activate the spell card 'Polymerization'! With this I can fuse the two 'Ancient Gear Soldiers' in my hand together.”

' _Ancient Gears, the default deck given to duel academy students that didn't have decks of their own when enrolling._ ' Jaden observed, ' _That shouldn't be to hard, no one has been able to duel with that as well as Crowler has. Which is good, that means I should be able to handle this quickly._ ' He then took a look at the dragon again to see the individuals dueling it. ' _I need to help out, by the looks of it, those guys won't be enough to stop that thing._ '

The soldiers appeared next to Roget as they entered a fusion vortex, promoting the crazed man to chant, “ _Mechanical soldiers inheriting ancient souls_ _. Now, form an allegiance and join, and be reborn together as a new power! Fusion Summon! Appear! Level 8!_ _Anc_ _ient Gear Howitzer!_ ” The monster that was firing at Jaden before came out of the vortex, looking ready to resume it's previous task.

**Ancient Gear Howitzer... Attribute: Earth, Type: Machine/Fusion, Level 8, Atk: 1000, Def: 1800**

“Howitzer's effect activates! Once per turn, you take 1000 points of Damage!” Roget declares. Prompting the monster to fire energy blasts at Jaden like it did before. Thankfully because it was in a duel now, the solid vision systems would prevent it from doing any real damage.

**Jaden's LP: 8000 – > 7000**

“My Howitzer is immune to any and all card effects.” The man then stated, “So there is not a single card in your deck that can stop it from dealing damage every turn until I win. You should just give up.” He stated as he set a card into his spell and trap zone.

Jaden rolled his eyes at that, “Hardly, it's my turn, I draw.” As he drew his card, he thought to himself some more, ' _This guy thinks having that one monster out guarantees a win? He's really needs to see a therapist if he thinks that being immune to card effects is enough to let him win. Or maybe he's gone past that point. Hopefully I won't when this is all said and done._ ' “I'll start things off by summoning my 'Card Trooper'!” he then declared as a little robot monster appeared on his field.

**Card Trooper... Attribute:Earth, Type:Machine, Level:3, ATK:400 DEF:400**

“I'll now use Card Trooper's ability.” Jaden proclaimed, “by sending 3 or less cards from the top of my deck to the graveyard, Card Trooper gains 500 attack points for every card sent, until the end of the turn.” He then grabbed three cards from the top of his deck, saying, “So I'll send the Maximum amount for a 1500 point boost.” He made sure to take note of what cards were sent, 'Elemental HERO Bubbleman', 'The Warrior Returning Alive', and 'Dark Future'.

**Card Trooper... ATK: 400 - > 1900**

“Next up I'll play, 'Dark Calling'!” Jaden then declared, “So by banishing monster's from my hand, field, or graveyard, I can fusion summon.” As he said that, ghostly images of Bubbleman and Avian appeared on his field, “And since Card Trooper was able to put Bubbleman in the graveyard, that means I can now fuse him with the Avian in my hand.” He continued as both monsters went into the darkened fusion vortex prompting a chant, “ _Heroes of water and air, unite as one to overcome the odds and avenge those that have fallen! Go! Dark Fusion! Level 5! Evil HERO Vengeful Pirate!_ ” A new monster came from the vortex, looking ready to take down an army, one solder at a time.

**Evil HERO Vengeful Pirate... Attribute:Water, Type:Fiend, Level:5, ATK:1400 DEF:1000**

“None of that makes a difference.” Roget stated.

“Yes it dose.” Jaden countered, “And now I'll show you, Howitzer may be immune to card effects, but it can still be beat in battle, 'Card Trooper', attack!” At the order, the little robot, pelted the fusion monster with bullets, rendering it to scrap.

“When Howitzer is destroyed, I can summon any Ancient Gear monster from my deck.” The Ancient Gear duelist replied, “So come forth, 'Ancient Gear Golem'!” Appearing in it's place was a giant automaton ready to attack.

**Ancient Gear Golem... Attribute: Earth, Type: Machine, Level 8, Atk: 3000, Def: 3000**

“I was expecting that.” Jaden stated, making his opponent's eyes widen, “Vengeful Pirate here has the ability to launch direct attacks.” He then revealed, “So go forth! Anchor Slash!” As he said that, two pools of water appeared, one below the fusion monster, and another behind Roget. The Evil Hero then dove in the one below him, came out of the one behind the Ancient Gear user, slashed with an anchor that had a blade of water coming off of it like a sword, before diving back to return to Jaden's field.

**Roget's LP: 8000 - > 6600**

“And now Pirate's second effect activates.” Jaden continued, “When it inflicts battle damage, I can send any monster on your field to the graveyard. So your Golem is headed straight to wherever Davy Jones keeps his giant ancient robots. Go! Life Force Plundering!” He the declared, causing another pool of water to open up below the Golem, several chained anchors rose up, wrapping there chains around the mechanical monster and dragged it into the pool before it closed. “And now I'll set a card, and end my turn, reverting Card Trooper's attack points to normal.” Jaden then concluded.

**Card Trooper... ATK: 1900 - > 400**

“It's my turn.” Roget stated, drawing a card, “I'll activate my trap card, 'Call of the Haunted'! With this I can resurrect a monster in my graveyard in attack position!”

“I guess Howitzer is coming back now?” Jaden asked.

“Revive 'Ancient Gear Solder!'” Roget then stated as one of the solders used to summon the fusion monster appeared on his field.

**Ancient Gear Solider... Attribute: Earth, Type: Machine, Level 4, Atk: 1300, Def: 1300**

“Wait, Solder?” Jaden asked, before his eyes narrowed, ' _Either he is more off the rails then I thought, or this won't be good._ '

“Now I summon the tuner monster, 'Attack Gainer'!” He then declared as a small humanoid monster appeared next to the Solder.

**Attack Gainer... Attribute: Earth, Type: Warrior/tuner, Level 1, Atk: 0, Def: 0**

“A tuner monster?” Jaden eyes then widened, “but that means...”

“I now tune my Level 1 'Attack Gainer' to my Level 4 'Ancient Gear Solder'!” Roget declared as his tuner became a single ring of light that went around the solder, as it turned into 4 stars, prompting a pillar of light to emerge as he then chanted, “ _You are mine now! Come serve your new ruler! Synchro Summon! Level 5! Naturia Beast!_ ” Coming from the pillar was a tiger-esq monster that seemed to be made out of shrubbery, but the thing Jaden noticed the most was the pained, lost, sorrow filled expression coming off of it's face.

**Naturia Beast... Attribute: Earth, Type: Beast, Level 5, Atk: 2200, Def: 1700**

“Hang on, what are you doing with that monster!?” Jaden demanded, never mind that it was a synchro monster, it was clear to him that for however long it was with Roget, it was depressed through every moment with him.

“Attack Gainer's effect activates.” The Synchro user declared, completely ignoring Jaden's question. “When used as synchro material, I can drop one of your monster's attack by 1000 points.” As he said that, a red aura appeared around Vengeful Pirate as he dropped down to his knees.

**Evil HERO Vengeful Pirate... ATK:1400 - > 400**

“Now 'Naturia Beast', attack Vengeful Pirate!” Roget ordered, The monster looked pained, but obeyed, leaping at the fusion monster, and right after giving Jaden a look that seemed to say sorry, ripped the Evil Hero into dust.

**Jaden's LP: 7000 – > 5400**

' _Dang it!_ ' Jaden though to himself, ' _Not only is this guy going to be harder then I thought, but he is somehow keeping a duel spirit in his deck against it's will. So I got to win, separate him from the duel spirits he is tormenting, knowingly or not, and I still have that dragon to deal with._ ' He spared a glance in the direction of the dragon, it's opponents seemed to have changed, ' _Well, on the plus side, it doesn't seem like I would be the only back up against that thing. But still, the sooner I get this done the better._ '

“I now activate the spell card 'Magic Planter'.” Roget continued, “Since 'Call of the Haunted' is now useless resting on my field right now, I'll use this to send it to my graveyard and draw 2 cards.” said as the continuous trap vanished. “I'll the set a card and end my turn. By the way, as long as my Beast is out, I can negate any and all spell cards you activate by sending 2 cards from my deck to he graveyard. So good luck pulling off another fusion summon.”

“Thanks for the tip.” Jaden said, “I draw.” He then looked at the card he drew ' _this could come in handy_ ' he thought, ' _but first, lets see if 'Card Trooper' can get me anything else good._ ' “First up, I'll active Card Trooper's effect! And send another 3 cards from my deck to the graveyard.” He then declared as he saw what three cards were sent, 'Evil HERO Malicious Edge', 'Necro Gardna' and 'Dark Fusion'.

**Card Trooper... ATK: 400 - > 1900**

“Go right on ahead,” Roget replied, “Your monster still isn't strong enough to get over mine, all your doing is throwing cards out!”

' _Oh, I'm doing more then that._ ' Jaden internally replied, “Thanks for the hand Trooper.” he then said speaking to the robot. “I'll now switch 'Card Trooper' into defense mode and throw down a couple face-downs.” He then spoke out loud as holograms appeared indicating two cards were set, one in the monster zone and one in the spell/trap zone “Your move.” As he said that, Card Trooper's ATK returned to normal again.

**Card Trooper... ATK: 1900 - > 400**

“I draw.” Roget stated. “I'll summon forth, 'Ancient Gear Hunting Hound'!” As he said that, a robotic dog of sorts appeared on his field.

**Ancient Gear Hunting Hound... Attribute: Earth, Type: Machine, Level 3, Atk: 1000, Def: 1000**

“When Hunting hound is summoned, I inflict 600 points of Damage!” Roget declared as his new monster shot flames at Jaden.

**Jaden's LP: 5400 – > 4800**

“Battle! Hunting Hound, attack 'Card Trooper'!” Roget commended as the monster leaped at the robot ripping it up.

“When 'Card Trooper' is destroyed, I can draw a card.” Jaden stated, drawing a new card.

“Won't matter! 'Naturia Beast' attack his set monster!” The Ancient Gear duelist replied as his synchro monster begrudgingly complied.

“Not so fast!” Jaden interrupted, “By banishing the 'Necro Gardna' in my graveyard, I can negate an attack!” He then said, as a graveyard portal opened up on his field, allowing a zombie-ish looking monster to leap out and block the synchro monster's attack.

“Fine then.” Roget grunted, “I set one card and end my turn.”

“It's my go, I draw!” Jaden said as he started his turn and saw what card he drew, ' _Guess my deck wants to wrap things up quickly as well... still I don't think I can do enough damage to finish him off this turn,_ ' He then started to grin ' _but I sure can do a bunch._ ' “I'll active my trap card, 'Back to the Front!' With this card I can revive any monster in my graveyard and put it in defense position! So return 'Evil HERO Malicious Edge!'” As he said that, the monster appeared from another Graveyard portal, ready for some action.

**Evil HERO Malicious Edge... Attribute:Earth, Type:Fiend, Level:7, ATK:2600 DEF:1800**

“And Now I'll show you my other face-down card, 'Wicked Fusion'!” Jaden revealed, as his other trap revealed itself, “Since you have my spells on lock down, I'll use a Trap to fusion summon, and this card lets me do just that using monsters in my hand or field! So I'll fuse my Malicious Edge with my face down 'Elemental HERO Wildheart'!” The set monster then revealed itself and started walking into another darkened fusion vortex alongside Malicious Edge as Jaden chanted, “ _Savage fighter, take the spirit of the wild and combine with it to launch an unending relentless hunt! Go! Dark Fusion! Level 8! Evil HERO Merciless Hunter!_ ” Coming from the fusion vortex was a new monster, looking ready to go out and take it's prey apart piece by piece.

**Evil HERO Merciless Hunter... Attribute:Earth, Type:Fiend, Level:8, ATK:2600 DEF:2300**

“As long as you have monsters out, Merciless Hunter can keep on attacking!” Jaden announced “Go, Start with Naturia Beast!” he declared as the hunter launched itself straight at the synchro monster.

“Not so fast! I activate a Trap!” Roget countered. “'Shadow Spell'! This card blocks off your monster from attacking and drops it's attack points by 700!” As he sad that, several chains came out of the trap card, intending to shackle Jaden's monster.

“As if!” Jaden replied, “By banishing the 'Wicked Fusion' in my graveyard, I can activate it's second effect and render one Evil HERO monster I control immune to any and all card effects for this turn.”

“Say what!?” Roget asked, and got his reply when he saw the fusion monster easily cut through the chains made by his trap and then slice up his synchro monster.

**Roget's LP: 6600 - > 6200**

“And Now to show poochy there how a real hunter gets things done, Attack!” Jaden continued, as his monster obeyed, easily slicing up the robotic dog.

**Roget's LP: 6200 - > 4600**

“I now set one card and end my turn.” Jaden concluded, setting the card he drew earlier.

“Why you...” the man started, “you dare halt my victory!?”

“Your stopping me from helping out in saving people from that dragon.” Jaden countered while addressing to the colossal dragon. “Sorry for prioritizing saving lives over whatever you have going on with duel academy.”

“My plan was perfect,” The man ranted, “I've had enough setbacks.”

“No plan is perfect.” Jaden stated, “That's why they need to be given the ability to change.”

“Trap ACTIVATE!!!!!” Roget then shouted as his other trap card revealed itself, “'Enduring Army'! With this, all monsters destroyed in battle this turn are revived!”

“That's not good.” Jaden said aloud to himself as he saw the Hunting Hound and synchro beast return to Roget's side of the field.

“Furthermore, as your turn comes to an end, 'Wicked Fusion's effect wears off, allowing my 'Shadow Spell' to bind your monster for good this time!” Roget continued as chains came out of his trap again to shackle Merciless Hunter.

**Evil HERO Merciless Hunter... ATK:2600 – > 1900**

“It's My Turn!” He then shouted as he drew a card, “I'll activate the spell card 'Pot of Greed', allowing me to draw 2 more cards.” He then ripped two more cards from his deck and gave a wicked grin upon seeing them. “I now summon the tuner monster 'Mystic Macrocarpa Seed'!” As he said that, a strange type of flying seed with wings appeared on his side of the field.

**Mystic Macrocarpa Seed... Attribute:Earth, Type:Plant/tuner, Level:3, ATK:500 DEF:1000**

“Another tuner monster?” Jaden said, keeping calm when noting the monster, “That means...”

“I now tune my Level 3 Macrocarpa seed, with my level 3 Hunting Hound!” Roget declared as his two monsters echoed what happened earlier, with the seed becoming 3 green rings and the Hunting Hound becoming 3 stars as another pillar of light appeared as Roget chanted, “ _You are mine now! Come serve your new ruler! Synchro Summon! Level 6! Naturia Barkion!_ ” Coming from this pillar was a monster similar in appearance to Naturia Beast, only being based more off of a dragon then a tiger. Even having the same look of pain and torment on it's face.

**Naturia Barkion... Attribute: Earth, Type: Dragon, Level 6, Atk: 2500, Def: 1800**

' _Okay, that's it!_ ' Jaden thought to himself, ' _One was bad enough, but with there being at least 2 now in there. Once I win this, I'm taking his whole deck from him, that way I can make sure every duel spirit in there finds the proper person to be with._ '

Roget began to laugh, “With Beast's effect, I can negate any spell by sending two cards from my deck to the graveyard, and with Barkion's effect, I can negate any trap by banishing 2 cards in my graveyard.”

“They can't stop any spell or trap,” Jaden replied, “There are plenty of ways around that.”

“Between these two, I have any possible back-row of yours on total lock-down” Roget continued, apparently not hearing, or paying attention to, Jaden. “So now I'll have these two unite in a way only I can make them! I activate the spell card, 'Fusion Substitute'! With this card, I can fuse my Beast and Barkion together!” He started to laugh madly, but stopped when he noticed a wind start and pick up.

“Let me stop you right there.” Jaden said, a dark aura now appearing around him. “I'll discard one card from my hand, to activate my quick-play spell. 'Super Dark Fusion'!” He then said, as he discarded, 'Reinforcements from the Army' to reveal his face down to be the quick-play spell. “With this, I can fuse from either player's side of the field, and since your 'Fusion Substitute' can only go for your field, well, I highly doubt it could work when you only have one monster out.”

“I told you, I can already stop any Spell or Trap” Roget stated, “I send-”

“Don't bother trying!” Jaden interrupted as his eyes started to glow gold, “No card or effects can activate in response to 'Super Dark Fusion''s effect!”

“What!?” Roget asked, not being to properly register that in his mind.

“I fuse 'Naturia Beast' with 'Evil HERO Merciless Hunter'!” Jaden declared as both monsters were freed from there positions, Beast from Roget's field and Hunter from Roget's chains, and walked into a darkened fusion vortex as the wind picked up even more and Jaden chanted, “ _Fallen Hero, unite with the Synchronized monster to take on it's power and achieve a greater form! Go! Dark Fusion! Level 7! Evil HERO Sonic Ragnarok!_ ” A new monster appeared from the vortex dispersing the wind with a wave of it's hand, and looking ready to end the duel.

**Evil HERO Sonic Ragnarok... Attribute:Dark, Type:Fiend, Level:7, ATK:2500 DEF:2000**

“When Ragnarok is summoned, you take damage equal to the level of the synchro monster used as it's fusion material times 200, and then Ragnarok gains attack points equal to the damage inflicted.” Jaden explained, as his newly summoned monster fired what seemed to be a concentrated wave of sound right at Roget.

**Roget's LP: 4600 - > 3600**

**Evil HERO Sonic Ragnarok... ATK:2500 – > 3500**

“It's still my turn.” Roget stated, “and I'll banish the 'Fusion Substitute' fro my graveyard! By doing this, I can return the 'Ancient Gear Howitzer' from my graveyard to my extra deck and draw one card.” He then declared as he draw another card, he then smirked, “I set one card and end my turn.”

“It's my turn, I draw!” Jaden said as he then looked at the card he drew.

“You ready to end this?” A voice from the card said.

“You Bet.” Jaden replied as he took the card he drew and put it on the field, “I summon 'Neo-Spacian Dark Panther'!” A cape wearing panther the appeared on Jaden's field, looking straight at Barkion.

**Neo-Spacian Dark Panther... Attribute:Dark, Type:Beast, Level:3, ATK:1000 DEF:500**

“Don't worry Barkion, we'll get you away from him.” It then said, which seemed to bring an look of hope to the Synchro monster's face.

“Now I think it's time to use Dark Panther's effect, allowing him to take the name and power of your 'Naturia Barkion'.” Jaden the stated as the panther turned into some sort of goo, that reformed itself into a copy of Barkion, only looking far more confident in it's user. “And then I'll play this, 'Monster Reborn'!” He continued, “So now I can revive almost any monster from either player's graveyard, so I'll take the 'Naturia Beast' from your graveyard to give him a chance on my field.” He then said as the aforementioned monster re-appeared on his field.

“Ready guys?” He asked his monsters. Upon getting the nod from all 3, he smiled, “Then lets go! Sonic Ragnarok attack 'Naturia Barkion'!” As he said that, The fusion monster the flew up a bit a created a sphere of concentrated sound that probably wouldn't be able to exist if it weren't for magic.

“I'm not going down that easily!” Roget exclaimed, “I activate my trap! 'Mirror Force'! Because of this all your monsters are destroyed!” He exclaims laughing mad as a light shined from his trap card.

Jaden then smirked, “Sorry, but when I said Dark Panther takes Barkion's powers I meant it.” He then said as he addressed to the transformed Neo-Spacian, “I activate the copied effect Dark Panther obtained from Barkion, and banish two cards in my graveyard to negate Mirror Force's effect.” He said, targeting 'Reinforcement's from the Army' and 'Back to the Front' to be the banished cards.

“Say what!?” Roget exclaimed, as his trap fizzled out and Jaden's attack went through, as another wave of sound wiped out Barkion and hit Roget.

**Roget's LP: 3600 - > 2600**

“Dark Panther, Direct Attack!” Jaden declared as his transformed monster launched fire out of it's mouth right at Roget.

**Roget's LP: 2600 - > 1600**

“I take it you would like the finishing blow Beast?” The synchro monster nodded and launched itself straight at Roget, knocking him to the ground and into unconsciousness.

**Roget's LP: 1600 - > 0**

The Solid Vision constructs faded, and Jaden walked up to the unconscious man. He took the deck and extra-deck out of Roget's duel disk, and put them into a spare pocket on the inside of his jacket, it wasn't a deck holder, but it should do for now. He then fiddled with Roget's duel disk a little and got it to activate an emergency distress signal, that way, someone should be able to find him easier and make sure he will be okay.

“Now to deal with that dragon.” He said as he looked up at where he saw it, and saw to his surprise, that the dragon was gone. “Wait where did it go?” He couldn't even sense it anymore, dose that mean it was stopped before he made it? That is probably a good thing, but it would be better to make sure everything is alright, after all, the dimensions are still merging, and all the other weird stuff was still going on. The area still looked distorted, and floating chunks of other dimensions were still in the sky.

As he started racing through the streets, the sky lit up again, this time with a lot of smile themed pictures. A second latter, dark red clouds emerged in the center of it all, with red lighting as the dragon came out of it. “Okay, it's not gone yet.” Jaden concluded, as he went to a rooftop so he could start getting to it faster. As he went onward to the dragon, a light begun to shine underneath it, and then it started roaring out in pain.

“Wait. What's going on?” Jaden then asked. He would have to wait to get his answer. Soon, all that Jaden could tell, was that everything was engulfed in the white light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 4 down one to go. And with the last chapter I gave Jaden a secondary goal to him to follow that can allow him to reach a more proper climax chapter, and with this chapter, I derail his original plans with the power of Cannon!.... and a giant world destroying dragon and the subsequent dimension splitting nukes needed to defeated it.  
> Next Chapter: Supreme Kings.


	5. Supreme Kings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The last Chapter

It was hard for Jaden to believe what was happening after he came to. It seemed like nothing changed, and yet... everything changed. Turns out, Hassleberry wasn't far off on his guess as to why Duel Academy wasn't actively in constant pursuit and the reason for everything going weird was because the Professor was finally enacting the plan to merge the dimensions. Despite the fact that the dimensions were re-split thanks to whatever light defeated that dragon, the event still got Duel Academy on everyone's radar, and the things going on under the surface were blown wide open.

In the end, it looks like the issue with Duel Academy wound up resolving itself after all. Something that left Jaden feeling a little unsatisfied about, but there was nothing he could do about it right now. Which meant the next thing to do is to start fixing up what went wrong with his deck, and the first attempt to work at that, finding Yusho Sakaki and seeing if he can help. Jaden had learned since waking up that Yusho was a big name in the Standard dimension and even ran a duel school there, the 'You Show Duel School'. Naturally, Jaden wanted to go straight there right away, but something about the re-splitting in dimensions caused it to be “reborn” in some fashion as the Pendulum dimension (Jaden, making note of the name scheme for all the dimensions, figured that meant everyone from there would now know how to use the pendulum summoning ability Dennis used against him not that long ago), and that caused them all to loose a bunch of their memories. So, he had to wait, both for the Pendulum dimension to re-gain there memories of what happened while they were still the standard dimension, and for a few other things to happen before he was allowed to start hopping through dimensions... apparently things like traveling between dimensions was something that politicians and other people needed to discuss before letting the general population do. As such, it seemed like the day he could finally cross dimensions, could not come soon enough.

“Wait, Jay, where are you going?” Syrus asked while running to catch up to Jaden.

“Off to see Yusho.” He replied simply, turning the corner to find the dimensional corridor that he heard was around. Apparently, they had popped up all over the place as a result of the dimensions merging and splitting again, and with them one could travel between all 4 dimensions, Pendulum, Fusion, Synchro, and Xyz, without needing any special interdimentional transporter with you. “He's a big name in Pendulum right? I just need to head there, and I can ask around till I find him.”

“So your just going to hop in a corridor and hope to get in Pendulum?” Syrus asked.

“Yeah, pretty much.” Jaden replied as he walked towards to dimensional corridor, “If I miss, I'll try again, I got to get there eventually.”

“But you don't -” Syrus began, but Jaden already hopped into the corridor vanishing from sight, “- need to bother with that. Aw man.”

“Sarge. Sarge!” Came a voice from above. Syrus looked up to see Tryanno calling out, “Yo, Sy, you seen the sarge recently?”

“Yep.” Syrus replied pointing at the corridor, “He just went through that dimensional corridor right there hoping to reach Pendulum and, eventually, Yusho.”

Hassleberry blinked at that while looking at the corridor, “But that one doesn't go to Pendulum.”

“I figured.” came the reply, “I was going to tell him that apparently Alexis knows Yusho, helped him establish a branch of his duel school here in Fusion, AND could take us straight to him, but he vanished through the portal before I could even begin.”

Tryanno could only sigh at that, “Well, that's the sarge for ya.”

“Yep.”

**line break**

The location Jaden wound up in was rather strange. In looked like a city, that was on top of another city, and it seemed like the social system in the city recently got a unanimous call to go under a complete change, something about not everyone getting treated fairly or something like that. Jaden didn't bother learning the details. More importantly, this city on top of a city wasn't in Pendulum, so he didn't have any real business that needed to be done here, and really, the fact that they dueled on some type of motorcycle caught his attention more then anything else anyway. ' _Huh, this looks interesting._ ' He thought to himself, ' _Maybe I can look into what this Turbo dueling is in case my plan with Yusho doesn't work out._ ' He then noticed something else, ' _Hey, there are an awful lot of Synchro summons going on in these duels... guess that means I am somewhere in the Synchro dimension. Hey maybe someone here can help me with finding a spot for those Synchro cards 'Mr. Loose gears' had._ '

So he started to wander around the city, trying to find a good place he could leave the monsters where they would be happy. Eventually he found a spot in one of the lower levels of the city. He found himself at what seemed to be a house run by a man with orange hair and yellow marks on his face, who was taking care of three little kids. It looked pleasing due to the number of duel spirits he could see around the house, and they all looked nice and happy, so after getting a nod from the Naturia Beast for it's approval, he left the cards in a spot in the back where either the man or the kids would easily be able to find the next time they came out to play.

Next up, he went to the upper levels of the city again and started looking around for any dimensional corridors. Or, at the very least, look around until a woman with red hair and an a Victorian influenced outfit spotted him, recognized that he wasn't native to the city, and was able to point Jaden in the direction of a corridor that led to Pendulum. For that, he was thankful for.... though he did have to wonder how she knew this wasn't where he was trying to be. What was she psychic or something? Well, regardless, he hopped on into the corridor and popped out in a place called Maiami city, and if the blue pillars of light around everyone who was dueling was any indication, this was in the newly reborn Pendulum dimension.

Jaden grabbed a nearby map, probably set up by all corridors for visitors (Did Synchro or Fusion have some? He didn't notice if they did.), and got started looking through it to see where the You Show Duel School was located. After about ten minutes of trying to find it on the map and failing, he gave in and asked someone for help in locating it and directions on how to get there. After about an hour of walking there (he briefly considered summoning a monster and decided against it) and about half an hour getting sidetracked because of a duel.... AND about another ten minutes of backtracking because he missed a turn and didn't realize it at first, he finally made it to the front of the You Show Duel School.

He had to say, he was expecting the place to be bigger or at least give more of a feeling of grandiose or something.... it was founded by a major figure here wasn't it? Based off of all the posters he saw on the way, it certainly looked like Yusho was still a big name on the dueling circuit here, yet the school here didn't scream “Best dueling school you can find!” nearly as much as any of the other schools. It seemed more like it was saying “Come in, lets have some fun.”.... though maybe that was the intention.

Jaden walked up to the door and, seeing that the place was open, walked on in. There wasn't anyone in the immediate area (a lobby maybe?) so he started waling through the hallways to see if he could find someone that could help. Thankfully the place wasn't to big, so doing so wouldn't take to long. And sure enough after about a minute of wandering the halls, a man with orange and brown hair appeared and spotted him.

“Oh, hello there.” He said, “Sorry, I didn't hear you come in.”

Jaden shrugged, “It's Okay, I wasn't exactly making a lot of noise coming in, so there wasn't much to hear.”

“So can I help you with anything?” the man asked. “Name's Syuzo Hiiragi by the way.”

“Jaden Yuki.” The former slifer replied, “And maybe. After a duel I had, where my opponent was dueling in a way that was influenced by Entrainment duels, I thought I would try and see what they are like straight from the source.” He tried to keep the details at a minimum, he didn't need to go into a long explanation on how he got to this point. “Preferably in the form of a duel, those always work best for me.”

“Okay,” Syuzo stated, as she then got to thinking, “Well, it sounds like you would like to have a duel with Yusho himself for that, but right now he is at the fusion dimension branch and between the pro leagues and teaching he doesn't have much time... so scheduling duel with him would give you a pretty long wait before you get it.”

Jaden blinked a bit, “Wait back up, fusion dimension branch? This place went multi-dimensional already?”

Syuzo gave a small nervous laugh saying “We may have gotten a bit of a head start. So anyway...” he then paused as though something just occurred to him, “Wait, you said your name was Jaden Yuki right?”

“Yeah.” Jaden said, kinda slowly. It sounded like Syuzo heard of him the way he phrased that, but he couldn't tell how. This was the first time he was outside of his dimension, and he wasn't aware that he did anything noteworthy enough for his name to be spread across dimensions.

“You wouldn't happen to have any friends over in the fusion dimension that defected from Duel Academy, would you?” he then asked.

The Hero duelists eyes widened at that, “How did you-?”

“Your friends arrived that the fusion branch of the a little over an hour and a half ago.” He, explained, “Alexis Rhodes helped establish the fusion branch with Yusho initially as a place for other people who defected from Duel Academy as well. We got a call saying that you were trying to head here.”

“Oh,” Jaden then stated, as he scratched the back of his head.... looks like all that time hopping through dimensions wasn't all that necessary. Although if he didn't wind up in Synchro he would have to have waited longer to find a spot for those cards he took from Mr. Loose Gears..... so, ehh, he can live with it.

“So anyway, if your wanting to have a duel against someone who is an ace at entertainment duels,” He then began again, “We might be able to get someone who can get the job done as well as Yusho if not better. Mind waiting for a bit to see if he's available?”

“Not at all.” Jaden replied, “Just tell me where the waiting room is and I'll keep myself occupied until it's time.”

And it certainly took a while at that, not that he was complaining. Syuzo poked his head in during the wait to tell him that the person he was contacting, who happened to be Yusho's son Yuya Sakaki, was just about to start his last pro-league duel for the day and was going to be over as soon as he could. He was fine with the wait... after all, he was still getting a chance to go against an entertainment duelist that is in the pro leagues. After about an hour of waiting, he heard the door open again and turned his head to see something surprising, a familiar looking short boy with blue hair, and a lollypop sticking out of his mouth.

“What the? Your here?” Sora then exclaimed, taking a step back with widened eyes.

“Sora?” Jaden replied as he instinctively reached for his duel disk.

“Huh, what is it?” Came a voice from the hallway as Syuzo appeared behind Sora alongside a girl with pink hair put into two pigtails. “Oh, do you two know each other?” he then asked, once he noted the facial expressions of the other two males in the area.

“Ehh, sorta.” Sora stated, “We dueled as he was leaving Duel Academy. That's the bulk of it.”

Jaden blinked at hearing the Frightfur duelist's easy, yet true, answer. Not only was it not all all cryptic, implying he had nothing to hide from these people, but he also didn't seem to make any move to pull out a duel disk or engage in a duel right now. “Wait, did you defect from Duel Academy too?” he then asked, “And then transfer here? Man, can't say I saw that coming.”

“Shut up.” Sora replied while glaring at Jaden.

“Sora, that was rude.” Syuzo stated, “Right now Jaden is our guest, we need to give him respect.”

“Whatever.” He replied.

The girl sighed as she turned to Jaden, “Sorry about that. I'm Yuzu. Sounds like you beat Sora pretty thoroughly to give him that response just by seeing you.”

“Name's Jaden.” he replied, “And yeah, I totally floored him.”

“It'll be the other way around next time.” Sora declared, “I've gotten way stronger since then.”

“Oh? Dose this mean I will have to actually try then?” Jaden replied with a smirk appearing on his face.

“Enough!” Syuzo stated, raising his voice a bit, “When Jaden came, he was wanting to get a better taste of Entertainment duels, not get into a banter battle. Okay?”

Yuzu nodded, “Yeah, Yuya is probably already at the duel field by now, we should get going.”

“Fine.” Sora stated, with his statement almost sounding like a wine. “Come on let's go.”

The duel field wasn't to far away, but he did find something strange about it, for starters, it was a lot bigger then he was thinking it should be, like at least 5 or 6 times larger then what would normally be needed to house a duel field. Also it was, for the most part, cut off from the surrounding area, spectators were in a separate room and had to look through a pane of glass to see the duel and, for some reason, Syuzo went into a nearby control room while Jaden went into the duel field itself. Why would it need a control room? In the middle of the duel field was a kid around Jaden's age, maybe a little younger, with red and green hair somewhat resembling a tomato and wearing a white jacket of sorts like it is a cape.

“Hey there,” The kid said, offering a handshake “Jaden right? I'm Yuya.”

“Nice to meet you.” Jaden said as he moved to accept the handshake, “Sorry for kinda getting you roped up into another duel when the rest of your day is suppose to be all cleared up.” The second Jaden grabbed Yuya's hand for the handshake, a sudden jolt surged through the two of them. Both of there eyes momentarily glowed (gold for Jaden, red for Yuya), and they both staggered back. “What the-? What was that?”

Yuya himself blinked a could times before saying, “Unexpected for starters.” But then he re-composed himself and held out his hand again saying “Uh, lets try that again. Shall we?”

“Uh, Yeah.” Jaden said as he once again accepted the handshake. Another jolt went threw the boys, but they were both expecting it this time so neither of them staggered back. During the handshake Jaden could since (and almost see) 4 different duel monster auras around Yuya. ' _He's got dragons._ ' The Hero duelist concluded, ' _Strong dragons._ '

“No need to worry about having me roped into a duel.” Yuya then said, “I've gotten kinda used to doing back-to-back duels recently, and I am always more then willing to help show other's how entertainment duels can go. You thinking of becoming an entertainment duelist?”

Jaden broke off of the handshake and shrugged, “Beats me, but If I like what I feel in this duel, you can probably count on me giving it a shot and transferring here.”

“Well, I guess that's just more incentive for me to do a good job then, huh?” Yuya said smiling. “Shall we get started?”

“Sure, just remember to get your game on. 'cause I'm not one to hold back any.” Jaden said.

“Okay then.” The entertainer said as the two got a good distance away for the duel.

Meanwhile, over in the audience room, Yuzu turned to Sora, “So, Sora, you said you dueled Jaden before right? Any idea on what Yuya is up against here.”

“Well, sorta.” Sora replied, “He plays a deck of Heroes, like Aster, but instead of Destiny Heroes, he uses Elemental Heroes, who'd effects are more immediate and diverse most of the time.”

“Why do I feel like there's more to it then that?” Yuzu asked.

He then pulled out his deck and began searching for a card in it, “When we dueled he never used Polymerization, instead he played... this card.” he said pulling out 1 card and showing it to Yuzu. “'Dark Fusion', it can only be used to summon fiend-type monsters. Because of that I never understood why 2 Elemental Heroes show up on the card artwork, as I thought all Hero fusions were warrior type. Then I dueled him and he proved me wrong. And I have only a small idea of they can do when this card is used with them.”

“Wow.” Was Yuzu's only reply as she saw the card, it looked pretty harmless by itself, but if there was one thing she knew about this game, it was that even a card with little at first glance can have surprising results when put to use.

Syuzo, from up in the control room, noticed the two duelist going into positions and said, “Alright here we go.” he then hit a button and an automated voice came out of the speakers saying ' _Action field on! Future City Heartland, activate!_ ' Light shined in the arena and in the blink of an eye, the area completely changed. Now everything looked like they were in a large city at night, all lit up like thousands of people were going to be running through constantly.

“Whoa, what in the world?” Jaden asked with wide eyes, not knowing what was going on.

“Oh, I guess you don't know.” Yuya stated.

“Know what?” Jaden asked, assuming it had to do with why it looks like they were teleported to a big empty city that shouldn't be empty.

“Most Entertainment duels are also Action duels.” Yuya began, “So we got an action field activated to give the full effect.”

“Any special rules going on in Action duels I need to know about?” Jaden asked.

“A couple.” The entertainer replied, “First up, the action field is always up and on the field, it dose nothing on it's own, but it means we have a field spell active during the entire duel. Then there's that.” He said pointing upward to a big floating sphere in the sky above the duelists. “That sphere currently contains all the Action cards that will appear in the duel. When the duel starts, the actions cards are released throughout the whole field.”

“How much of an impact do they make?” Jaden asked.

Yuya shrugged “Depends on the duelists really. As they don't do anything without our input. You see in Action duels, the solid vision is used to allow the duelists to run alongside their monsters throughout the entire action field, if we see an action card, we can pick it up and add it to our hand. But we don't know which card were getting until after we pick it up, and if it is a trap card, it is activated immediately.”

“So it is like drawing cards from outside our decks then.” Jaden said out loud smirking. He always did have a pretty lucky draw.

“Yeah, that one way of looking at it.” Yuya said, “but we can only have one action card in our hand at a time, so we can't hoard them, but on the plus side, action spells can be used from the hand on either players turn, so if you get one at just the right moment, you can get yourself out of a tight jam.”

“Nice.” Jaden replied, “anything else that I need to know for this?” He then said as he put his duel disk on.

“Just that we have a special chant we like to do before all action duels.” Yuya said smirking as his duel disk activated alongside Jaden's, “But if you don't know it, you don't have to partake, our audience can help out with that for you.”

“Well, lets hear it then.” The Red wearing duelist said.

Yuya smirked as he began the chant, “Duelist Locked in Battle!”

Syuzo turned on an intercom to say the next line, “Kicking the earth and dancing in the air alongside their [monsters](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Monster_Card)! They storm through this [field](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Field)!”

Sora and Yuzu spoke up for this next line (Jaden wasn't sure how he heard them), “Behold! This is the newest and greatest evolution in dueling!”

Yuya spoke up again “Action-”

“ **DUEL!”**

“Feel free to take the first turn.” Yuya offered once the action cards dispersed.

“Na, you take it.” Jaden replied, “Get your entertainment going right at the start.”

“Okay then.” Yuya said as he looked down at his hand, “I'll start things off with my pal, 'Preformapal Secondonkey'.” He then said as a rather large donkey dressed for the circus appeared next next to him.

**Preformapal Secondonkey...Attribute:Earth, Type:Beast, Level:4, ATK:1000 DEF:2000**

“Well Secondonkey, you feel like helping me look for an action card or two?” Yuya then asked his monster. The monster then seemed to give of some type of response that was hard to understand, but Yuya then gave a slight tap on his own forehead and said “Oh silly me, of course you would want to use your effect first.” A light then shined from one of the pouches on Secondonkey's outfit as Yuya said. “When Secondonkey is normal or special summoned I can send any Preformapal from my deck to the graveyard.” He then made his selection on his duel disks screen saying, “So I'll send my 'Preformapal Thunderhino' there for now, and then end my turn.” After saying that, the light from the monster went to Yuya's deck, then a card came out of the deck slot so Yuya could move it to the graveyard. He then turned back to his monster saying, “You ready now?” The donkey gave a much more cheerful sound as it then practically flipped Yuya right onto it's back and ran off in search of Action cards.

“Then it's my turn. I draw.” He declared drawing a card, ' _I guess this is just the warm up for him._ ' He thought to himself, ' _Cause there is no way a Pro should need to be reminded by his own monster to use it's effect. Or maybe he is just tired because of whatever duel he was just at. Either way, time to get started._ ' If this guy was deserving of the Pro title, the Jaden would have to stay on his toes to win. With that in mind he made his move “I summon, 'Elemental HERO Sparkman' to the field.” he declared as his electrical hero hit the field.

**Elemental HERO Sparkman... Attribute:Light, Type:Warrior, Level:4, ATK:1600 DEF:1400**

“Sparkman, attack! Static Shockwave!” Jaden declared as his hero went after the donkey to launch electricity at it.

Yuya then smiled a bit as his monster leaped right into the air. Then Yuya leaped off of his donkey and activated some sort of roller skates in his boots. Landing on an above street-like platform he sped along using the roller skates and grabbed an action card. “I activate the action spell 'Evasion' which negates your attack!” He then declared playing the card he just got. Not being stopped from trying, Sparkman still fired lightning at the Preformapal, but the donkey tucked into a roll for it's landing and kept rolling to completely dodge the attack.

“Okay, so that's how they are when in action.” Jaden said as he checked his duel disk to see that Yuya's action card had been sent to his graveyard. “That can make things more interesting. I'll place one card face-down and end my turn.” He then said as he looked up and saw that Yuya was already moving again. “Well, when in Rome.” He said to himself as he seemed to vanish from the spot, almost effortlessly using nearby objects to platform his way up to an upper level and give chase to Yuya. Sparkman flying through the air to follow.

“Okay then, My turn.” Yuya said as he drew a card and then spotted another action card, grabbing that as well. “I'll discard the action spell 'No Action' from my hand in order to activate 'Pendulum Call'!” he then announced, turning back to see Jaden following him. “This card will now allow me to add 2 pendulum Magician monsters from my deck to my hand.” Two cards then came out of his deck as he showed them saying, “So I'll choose my Dragonpit and Dragonpulse Magicians.”

“And If their Pendulum monsters,” Jaden said to himself as recalled what happened in his duel with Dennis. He then felt a light tap on his shoulder, turning to see Sparkman addressing toward something. “Yeah Pal?” Looking in the direction his monster was pointing, the Hero duelist noticed a small card-shaped object with a unique back to it. “Guess it's time to see if my luck of the draw transfers to action cards then.” He then started to make his move toward the card, grabbing it with very little effort despite the placement.

' _Well, he was a duel academy student like Sora._ ' Yuya thought to himself as he saw the moves Jaden used to get the action card. ' _So Let's pick up the pace._ ' “I'll now use the Scale 1 Dragonpulse Magician and the Scale 8 Dragonpit Magician to set the Pendulum scale. With this I can Pendulum Summon monsters level 2 through 7.” As he said that, two pillars of light appeared next to him, with the magicians inside them and their corresponding numbers underneath the monsters.

' _Oh Bleep._ ' Jaden though to himself, ' _That's half all of the levels a monster can have, not to mention all the most common ones._ '

Yuya then closed his eyes and began to chant, “ _Swing, Pendulum of Souls! Draw an arc of light across the ether! Pendulum Summon! Come! My Monsters! Preformapal Elephammer and the dragon with w_ _ondrous and beautiful dichromatic eyes! Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!_ ” Coming from a giant hole in the sky was two streams of light. One revealed itself to be a large elephant with a hammer for a trunk, and the other, a large red dragon with green and orange eyes.

**Preformapal Elephammer...Attribute:Earth, Type:Beast, Level:6, ATK:2600 DEF:1800**

**Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon...Attribute:Dark, Type:Dragon/Pendulum, Level:7, ATK:2500 DEF:2000**

Jaden paused when he saw the summoned monsters, ' _That dragon._ ' he thought to himself, ' _That's one of the dragons I sensed in his deck. It's a Pendulum monster? Oh shoot, it's already feeling as strong as some of the strongest monsters I've met, and he's got 3 other dragons as good as it is?_ '

Yuya the got right onto his dragon, ready to ride saying. “Let's Go! Battle! Odd-Eyes attacks 'Elemental HERO Sparkman'! Spiral Strike Burst!” The dragon roared as fire formed in it's mouth before firing it right at the monster.

Jaden made a move to activate his set card but stopped himself, ' _Wait, I have the action card!_ ' The fire connected and a big explosion roared out covering Jaden and his field from view.

“When Odd-Eyes attacks another monster, battle damage is doubled.” Yuya stated.

“Shame I didn't take any then.” Came a voice from behind Yuya. Yuya turned to see Jaden right there with Sparkman still there without a scratch. “You did say either duelist could use action cards right? Well, this one, 'Big Escape', ended the battle phase, canceling your attack.”

The Preformapal duelist smirked, “Good, action duels do tend to be better when both duelists go for the action cards. I'll now switch Secondonkey to defense mode and end my turn.”

“I draw.” Jaden declared as he grabbed another card from the top of his deck.

“Need some help?” he heard a voice call to him, turning slightly to see the ghostly image of 'Neo-Spacian Glow Moss' next to him, “He did just summon two high level monsters at once, and he seems to have 3 other dragon as powerful as that one he summoned. We can help out if your not sure you can win.”

“Na, I'm fine, it's not like I'm scared of loosing or anything.” He whispered back to the duel spirit “After all, he ain't going to turn me into a card should he win. Besides,” he then said as a smile emerged on his face, “Only a fake duelist would wilt at seeing the strength of their opponent, him busting out those monsters only makes me want to have him throw the rest out at me as well.” He the grabbed a card from his hand, “I now activate my field spell, 'Fallen Skyscraper'!” He declared raising his voice. As he did this, the area around them changed. Explosions went off in the buildings generated by the action field, fires came out covering the area, and a few building fell down, turning the entire futuristic city into a shadow of it's former self. “Huh, so that's what happens when you play field spells here.” The Hero duelist then noted.

“Well, that probably shuffled the action cards a bit,” Yuya noted, “Let's go Odd-Eyes.” As he said that, the dragon roared and went off to search for another action card.

“Let's start up the big guns,” Jaden the said as he grabbed the card he drew, “I activate 'Dark Fusion'! With this I can fuse the 'Elemental HERO Sparkman' on my field, the the 'Evil HERO Shadow Grave' in my hand.”

“Evil HERO?” Yuzu repeated as she heard that.

“Yep,” Sora then confirmed, “That's what you get when you use 'Dark Fusion' with Elemental Heroes. I know there name is kinda an Oxymoron, but they are not to be underestimated at all.” He continued as he saw Yuya grab another action card, “I learned that the hard way.”

A darkened fusion vortex appeared behind Jaden as he began to chat, “ _Phantom of Vengeance, unite your strength with the electrical savior, and become a being that will unleash the force of the dead! Go! Dark Fusion! Level 6! Evil HERO Necro Lightning!_ ” A new monster erupted from the vortex, with black lightning arching around it, ready to strike down it's foes.

**Evil HERO Necro Lightning... Attribute:Dark, Type:Fiend, Level:6, ATK:2000, DEF:1000**

“When I preform a dark fusion summon, the effect of 'Fallen Skyscraper' lets me draw a card.” Jaden announced drawing another card. “Now Necro Lightning attacks Elephammer!” He then declared as his monster jumped up into the air. “Now here comes the fun part, when Necro Lightning attacks I can force your monster to use it's defense points for damage calculation instead of it's attack points, but because your monster still has more attack points 'Fallen Skyscraper' can give Necro Lightning an extra 1000 attack points for the battle.” The Hero duelist then explained.

**Evil HERO Necro Lightning... ATK:2000 - > 3000**

Yuya held out his hand saying, “Hold on, If a Preformapal I control would be destroyed by battle or card effect, I can banish the Thunderhino in my graveyard to save it!” As he said that, his elephant seemed to tuck it's head into itself bracing for impact as the fusion monster fired black lightning at it. Then Thunderhino appeared out of a graveyard portal and created a blue barrier to protect the elephant by deflecting all the lightning.

“But you still take the damage!” Jaden reminded as some of the lightning bounced toward Yuya zapping him from atop his dragon.

**Yuya's LP: 8000 – > 6800**

“At this point, the boost from 'Fallen Skyscraper' ends and Necro Lightning's attack point return to normal.” Jaden then stated.

**Evil HERO Necro Lightning... ATK:3000 - > 2000**

“Now I'll activate a spell card,” Jaden then said grabbing another card, “'Dark Future'! With this, I can preform a dark fusion using monsters in my deck as fusion material, however, while the monsters I use as fusion material are sent to the graveyard right now, the fusion monster they make won't appear until my next turn.” Two cards then came out of his deck as he moved them to the graveyard saying, “So I'll send the Elemental Heroes Avian and Burstinatrix to the graveyard for now, so you can see their fusion next turn. Your up.”

“Okay then, I draw!” Yuya said grabbing a card, and turning to Jaden, “So Jaden, care to tell me why you came here alone?”

Jaden blinked, not expecting a question in the middle of the duel, “What do you mean?”

“I heard from Yuzu and Principle Shuzo that you had friends in the fusion dimension that left Duel academy with you,” He began to clarify, “and that right now they are at the You Show Duel School's fusion dimension branch, probably being taught by my dad right now. Why did you head off on your own to come here instead of sticking with them?”

“What dose that have to do with anything?” Jaden asked.

“Quite a bit actually.” Yuya replied, “After all, you all recognized that you needed to leave Duel Academy and worked together to do so, but when it comes to getting their teachings out of your system, you chose to go alone.”

Glow Moss then decided to speak up at that time, “He's got a point. Did they even see you duel seriously at all since you got off the island?”

“Wait, they haven't even seen you duel at full force?” Yuya then asked.

Jaden blinked at that, “Wait, you heard that?”

“Yeah, I can hear and see you little pal there.” He replied, addressing toward the equally surprised Glow Moss. “A lot more understandable then any of my duel spirits actually.” Odd-Eyes then gave a little roar at Yuya at that moment, “Not to discredit your ability to communicate or anything.” he then tried to reassure his dragon, “It's just, his are speaking the same way humans do, so it is just that much easier for me to figure out what they are saying.”

Jaden thought back to Yuya's original question, why didn't he stick with his friends? Sure he was able to make his way to Synchro and get those duel spirits a home, but he could have done that at any time, and he didn't even intend to wind up in Synchro in the first place. “I don't know...” he ultimately said.

“That's a shame.” The entertainment duelist replied, “Maybe after this, you could head back to them and try to stick with them for a bit during a duel or two.” He then slid down Odd-Eyes's tail as the dragon then used it as a catapult to send Yuya up to start balancing on the top of a broken light-post, “After all this world is full of all sorts of unexpected twists and turns, you can't catch them all yourself. And with your friends, you can all catch a lot more of them and get stronger together, a lot more then you could separately.”

“Yeah,” The Hero user admitted, “I guess that makes since.”

“Now, back to the duel.” Yuya said as he spotted a nearby action card, but didn't go for it yet as he still had one in his hand. “I'll now tribute my 'Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon', and my 'Preformapal Elephammer' in order to fusion summon!”

“Wait, what!?” Jaden asked, he heard “fusion summon”, but no activation of a card effect to enable it. So, did that mean-?

A fusion vortex appeared behind Yuya that the dragon and elephant then went into. Yuya then closed his eyes and chanted “ _Leader of the circus,_ _Become one with the_ _mysterious dragon_ _, and create a new power! Fusion Summon! Come forth! Ferocious dragon with luminous feral eyes! Level 8,_ _Beast-Eyes Pendulum Dragon_ _!_ ” Coming from the vortex was a monster similar in appearance to Odd-Eyes, but with more animal-esq features on it's body, and it's red-eye replaced with a yellow one.

**Beast-Eyes Pendulum Dragon...Attribute:Earth, Type:Dragon, Level:8, ATK:3000 DEF:2000**

“And since I still have my pendulum scales, I'll now pendulum summon!” Yuya declared, as another light shined from between the two pillars, “Revive from my Extra deck Odd-Eyes!” he then concluded as the first Dragon appeared once again.

Jaden had to mentally slap himself back into focusing on the duel, Beast-Eyes was not one of the dragons he sensed in Yuya's deck before, it feels more like an extension of Odd-Eyes in a way. But still, no card effect was needed to fusion summon it, that meant it was summoned by Contact Fusion. While he knew people from Pendulum frequently had the other summoning mechanics, they weren't typically as good with them as people from Fusion, Synchro or Xyz are with theirs, and Contact Fusion was an advanced state that was rare even for people in Fusion! Jaden tries not to underestimate his opponents, but it looks like he might have wound up doing that anyway in this case.

“Battle! 'Beast-Eyes Pendulum Dragon' attacks 'Evil HERO Necro Lightning'!” Yuya then declared as his new dragon roared and charged forward.

“Hold on! Since your monster as higher attack points then my Evil HERO, 'Fallen Skyscraper' gives it 1000 extra attack points!” Jaden then declared as his Monster powered up to tie with Beast-Eyes.

**Evil HERO Necro Lightning... ATK:2000 - > 3000**

“I activate an action spell! Miracle!” Yuya declared, playing the card he grabbed last turn, “This card protects one monster from being destroyed in battle and halves battle damage! I'll use it to save Beast-Eyes!”

“Say what!?” Jaden asked surprised, a card like that seems defensive in purpose, but he was using it offensively?

“Go Beast-Eyes!” Yuya continued, “Hell Dive Burst!” The dragon jumped up into the air, and launched a massive burst of flame at the Evil HERO, vaporizing it in one shot, even if Jaden didn't take any damage. “When Beast-Eyes destroys a monster, it's effect activates!” He then stated.

“He's not he only one,” Jaden cut in, “When Necro Lightning is destroyed, it's effect activates as well, allowing me to target and banish any monster on your field, I choose Odd-Eyes!”

“Uh, Oh.” Yuya stated, as he quickly leaped to grab the action card he spotted earlier, seeing it he smiled, “Whew, good card! I activate the action spell, 'Guard Cover'! Thanks to this, I can redirect the target from Odd-Eyes to to 'Preformapal Secondonkey'!” As he said that, the Donkey leaped in front of Odd-Eyes, taking a bolt of black lightning for the dragon as it got banished, “Sorry Secondonkey.” Yuya quietly added, before turning back to Jaden, “Now Beast-Eyes's effect can resolve, which means you take damage equal to the attack points of the beast type fusion material used to summon it!”

“But wait,” Jaden said, trying to keep up, “You used Elephammer to summon it. So that means-”

“You take 2600 points of Damage!” Yuya finished as his dragon launched more fire straight at Jaden.

**Jaden's LP: 8000 - > 5400**

“Now! Odd-Eyes direct attack!” Yuya then declared as his red dragon then charged.

“Dammit!” Jaden muttered to himself, “I activate a trap! 'Negate Attack'! So your attack ain't going anywhere!” He then declared as space got distorted in front of him, blocking the flames of the dragon's attack that was headed right at him.

Odd-Eyes gave another roar before Yuya turned to him saying, “It's okay, Odd-Eyes. Sometime your attack will go through, let's go find another action shall we?” The dragon seemed to calm a bit at that as Yuya got onto it's back. “I end my turn.” Yuya then stated as he rode Odd-Eyes off, with Beast-Eyes following close behind.

Jaden looked at Yuya riding off for another action card, “These action cards can really throw a wrench into just about any plan.” He said to himself. He then let out a small chuckle as a thought occurred to him, “I wonder what Bastion's opinion on them is, knowing him he'd probably try to control which action card he can get. Kinda like how he tries to crack that 'phenomenal draw' thing or whatever it was.” His eyes then glowed golden as he looked back at Yuya's location, “I got to really get my game on to keep up with every twist he tries to throw my way with those action cards.”

“I Draw!” Jaden then declared as he drew a card, “At this moment the effect of 'Dark Future' Kicks in, allowing me to summon the monster I set up for last turn!” Ghostly images of Avian and Burstinatrix then appeared by him and went into a darkened fusion vortex as Jaden chanted, “ _Hero of the Skies, hero of fiery passion, unite as your dark anger arises! Go, Dark Fusion! Rise up! Evil HERO Inferno Wing!_ ” Coming out of the vortex, the flaming winged woman wore a sinister grin on her face, ready to turn up the heat on the duel.

**Evil HERO Inferno Wing... Attribute:Fire, Type:Fiend, Level:6, ATK:2100 DEF:1200**

“2100 attack.” Yuzu noted, “With 'Fallen Skyscraper', that is enough to overpower Yuya's dragons.”

Sora actually stiffened up a bit at seeing the monster, adding, “That's if he is leaving it at that, remember he was setting up this one last turn, this is only the beginning of his play.”

“Because this fusion summon is treated as one from 'Dark Fusion', 'Fallen Skyscraper' lets me draw another card.” The Evil Hero duelist declared as he draw another card, “And now I play, 'The Warrior Returning Alive'! to add back one warrior monster from my Graveyard to my hand.” He then added as a card came out of his Duel Disk's graveyard slot. “So I'll add back, and then summon, my Elemental HERO Sparkman!” Jaden continued as the hero from before reappeared on his field.

Sora's eyes widened as he saw the play, “Sparkman' back!? But that means...”

Yuzu turned to look at Sora noting how he seemed almost frozen knowing what was coming next and had taken a step back from the duel area. “What is it Sora?” Sora didn't answer her question, Jaden did with his next move.

“I activate the effect of Shadow Grave from my Graveyard!” He then declared, “Once per duel, I can preform a dark fusion using monsters on my field! So I'll merge 'Evil HERO Inferno Wing' with 'Elemental HERO Sparkman'!” Once he said that, another darkened fusion vortex appeared that both heroes went into, prompting Jaden to chant, “ _Corrupted Wingman, take on the powers of the electrical Hero, to incinerate all who dare stand in your way of Justice! Dark Fusion! Rise Up! Evil HERO Blazing Inferno Wing!_ ” Inferno Wing once again came out of the fusion vortex, now sporting her wings of Black Fire, and all of her lightning and white flames dancing around her.

**Evil HERO Blazing Inferno Wing... Attribute:Light, Type:Fiend, Level:8, ATK:2500 DEF:2100**

“Once again, 'Fallen Skyscraper' lets me draw another card.” Jaden declared as he drew again, “Furthermore, thanks to her effect, Blazing Inferno Wing now gains 300 attack points for every HERO monster in my graveyard, and right now that's 6.” He then added as Inferno Wing powered up.

**Evil HERO Blazing Inferno Wing... ATK:2500 - > 4300**

Sparing a glance at Jaden's direction, Yuya had to say something, “That's a lot of attack points.” was what he settled on.

“Let's go see if we can stop him from getting another action card, shall we.” Jaden then said to his monster. Nodding, Inferno Wing then knelt down to allow Jaden onto her back, retracting some of the flames and lightning just to be safe. Jaden then got on, being careful not to grab anything the monster wouldn't appreciate being grabbed, and then the two shot off, closing the distance between Jaden and Yuya in almost no time at all, Jaden then got off saying “Inferno Wing attack 'Beast-Eyes Pendulum Dragon'! Ultimate Inferno Blast!” The monster obeyed, launching a sphere of white fire right at the feral dragon, rendering it to ash.

**Yuya's LP: 6800 – > 5500**

' _There!_ ' Yuya then saw as he spotted an action card and dived off of Odd-Eyes to get it.

Jaden noticed Yuya's dive (it was kinda hard to miss), and spotted the card Yuya was aiming for, “Oh no, you don't.” He then said as he jumped down to get the card before Yuya did. “Inferno Wing's effect activates.” He the declared, “Since it destroyed your monster by battle and sent it to the Graveyard, you take damage equal to either it's Attack or Defense, whichever is higher!” Inferno Wing then grabbed Yuya's arm, stopping his decent, and tossed him back up, “Flaming Eternity!” Jaden the declared, the the fire from his monster's wings then spread to competently encase Yuya in a cocoon of black flames.

**Yuya's LP: 5500 – > 2500**

Jaden picked up the action card Yuya was after and turned to see that Inferno Wing still had Yuya trapped in the cocoon. Blinking a bit as his eyes returned to normal, he realized that his power was allowing his monster and it's attack to be a bit more real then it should be right now. “Inferno Wing, That's enough! Let him go!” He then called out to his monster, even if Yuya didn't get burned physically, getting trapped in a cocoon of fire couldn't be good for anyone.

Looking at him for a second, the monster complied, and pulled back it's wings to let Yuya out. Only he was now panting and looking about ready to pass out from heat exhaustion.“Oh Man, dude, you okay?” Jaden then asked the teen. “I didn't think- or mean-” Jaden tried to explain himself, but Yuya cut him off.

“Hey relax.” The entertainment duelist said as he panted, “Though I might need a second, those flames were hot!” He then pause for a second and raised his voice saying “Hey Principal Syuzo, the settings for the duel are on practice mode right?”

“Yep,” Syuzo's voice replied coming out of the intercom, “Timer is off, so you take all the time you need.”

“Timer?” Jaden asked.

“There is normally a time limit to how long someone can make any non-duel related actions every turn before your turn automatically comes to an end.” Yuya began to explain, “and grabbing action cards eats up that time as well, adding some risk to trying to get them in action duels.” He then took a couple more deep breaths and continued, “But we have a practice mode that disables the time limit for the people who are still trying to get a hold of grabbing them effectively, or if it is their first action duel. But I guess using it to cool down after a really heated attack works out just as well.”

“I'm so sorry, that attack wasn't suppose to be as real as it was,” Jaden said apologizing, “even with the solid vision, The flames weren't suppose to...” he didn't finish the sentence, Yuya didn't wait for him to do so.

“Hey, relax.” Yuya said, “You held them back enough so they wouldn't do any physical damage, That's more then what I can say for various other Duel Academy students I went up against.”

“Wait, other Duel Academy students?” The Jaden remembered who one of the spectators are, “Did Sora-?”

“No no no,” Yuya quickly said cutting him off, “Sora is fine. I just wind up being a part of a group called the Lancers to put a stop to what Leo Akaba was doing, so I had to duel a lot of Duel Academy students, and most of them were not trying to hold back with how lethal the solid vision makes their attacks.”

Jaden blinked at that, he didn't know people from other dimensions (besides Xyz) were fighting against Duel Academy, but he guessed it made some since, Dennis had to get Pendulum summoning from somewhere after all. Then there was the fact that You Show had a head start in getting a fusion dimension branch.

“Anyway, It's still your turn.” Yuya said, cutting Jaden off from his chain of thought, “Or did you end it and I missed that?”

“Oh, uhh” Jaden looked at his hand. “I set a card and end my turn.” He then stated, prompting his monster to float behind him, “You sure you want to continue, Your going back to back in duels and Inferno Wings flames are no joke, Physical damage or not.”

“Hey, like I said, It's Okay.” Yuya said as he walked back toward where Odd-Eyes was, “I sensed your power when we shook hands, so I knew what I was getting into.” He then stopped walking when he reached his dragon “Besides, it would be to much of a shame to stop now, after all...” He then turned back to Jaden, revealing a bright smile on his face and no sign of exhaustion, “The Fun has Just Begun! I Draw!”

Seeing the cards in his hand didn't cause Yuya's smile to falter one tiny bit, “First things first, with my pendulum scale I'll Pendulum Summon!” He then declared as another hole shown up in the sky and two lights came out of it, “Come on out! 'Preformapal Longphone Bull' and 'White Wing Magician'!” The two monsters appeared, one being a bipedal bull and the other a female magician clothed in white.

**Preformapal Longphone Bull...Attribute:Earth, Type:Beast, Level:4, ATK:1600 DEF:1200**

**White Wing Magician...Attribute:Wind, Type:Spellcaster/Pendulum, Level:4, ATK:1600 DEF:1400**

“When Longphone Bull is special summoned, I can add another non-pendulum Preformapal from my deck to my hand.” Yuya explains as a card came out of his deck for him to grab. “So I'll add my good pal Whip Snake to my hand. Now I'll set one card.” Yuya smirked as the representation of the face down card appeared nearby him. “And without any trap cards in my Graveyard, I can activate it right away!”

“Say What!?” Jaden asked, not having heard of trap cards that can activate themselves the turn they are set.

The card flipped up on Yuya field as he announced, “I play, 'The Phantom Knights of Shade Brigandine'! Upon activation, this card special summons itself as a normal monster!” As he said that, the item on the card's image them appeared floating the air, apparently possessed by some sort of ghost.

**The Phantom Knights of Shade Brigandine...Attribute:Dark, Type:Warrior, Level:4, ATK:0 DEF:300**

“Wait a second. Phantom Knights?” Sora said aloud to himself, “Wouldn't that be a card Yuto would play?”

“Yuto, Yugo, and Yuri are all inside Yuya right now.” Yuzu replied, “It only makes since that Yuya would be able to access some of their cards beyond just the dragons.”

“Now since Longphone Bull and Shade Brigandine are both Level 4 monsters, I can use them to fill an overlay network!” Yuya declared as both monsters turned into streams of energy and flew into a galaxy themed spiral. “ _Formed from pitch-black darkness, to fight those foolish enough to oppose it with its treacherous fangs!_ ” The Entertainment duelist chanted, “ _Now, descend! Xyz Summon! Appear! Rank 4!_ _Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon_ _!_ ” Coming from the overlay network was another large dragon, black in color and with two purple Xyz material orbiting around it.

**Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon... Attribute: Dark, Type: Dragon, Rank: 4, ATK: 2500 DEF: 2000**

Jaden eyes widened and turned gold again when he saw that dragon, ' _This is another one of his four Dragons, and this is an Xyz monster? Oh Man, dose that mean the other Dragons are also summon-able from the Extra deck? This doesn't bode well for me._ '

“I'll now activate Dark Rebellion's effect!” Yuya declared, as the two purple lights got absorbed into the new dragon, “By detaching two overlay units, Dark Rebellion can half the attack of one of your monsters and gain the lost attack!” He continued as the dragon fired some sort of lightning out at Inferno Wing, “Go! Treason Discharge!”

“Hang on!” Jaden interrupted, “I got an action spell! 'Detour'! This card negates the effect of one monster you control and deals 500 points of damage!” As he said that, Inferno Wing held out her wings to shield herself from the Lightning, and once the Lightning went around her to try and shackle the Evil HERO, she replied by simply ripping it apart with her wings, simultaneously getting of the lighting to bounce back and sting Yuya a little.

**Yuya's LP: 2500 – > 2000**

“Huh, so that's what it was.” Yuya noted. He then shrugged saying, “Aw well, can't get them all.” He then turned to Dark Rebellion saying, “So lets grab a different one shall we?” The Xyz Dragon then nodded and lowered it's head allowing Yuya to get on, before spreading it's wings and taking flight.

“Guess it is kinda weird that the first one couldn't fly.” Jaden thought out loud, which got a verbal reply from 'the first one' that was still right there. “Oh, uhh, Inferno Wing?” The fusion monster got the message and grabbed Jaden's arm taking off after Yuya.

The two remaining pendulum monsters then looked at each other. The magician then shrugged, got on the dragon, and pointed in a direction. The dragon then rolled it's eyes, before complying to re-join Yuya.

The boy in question then spotted an action card on the side on an exploded 'building' and quickly swiped it. Seeing what card it was, he smiled and grabbed another card from his hand. “Now I'll normal summon my 'Preformapal Whip Snake' to the field!” He the announced, making sure to have his duel disk's microphone on in case Jaden couldn't hear him from his current location. Then a top hat wearing snake appeared next to Yuya, freaked out a bit when it saw how high up it was and coiled around Yuya's arm.

**Preformapal Whip Snake...Attribute:Earth, Type:Reptile, Level:4, ATK:1700 DEF:900**

Jaden noted that Dark Rebellion was starting to slow down and descend, assuming that meant Yuya found an action card, Jaden quickly did a search for one himself, got lucky, and grabbed one before he and Inferno Wing landed just a small distance from where Yuya was. “Guess I now know why your duel arena is so big.” Jaden then quipped, “It would be hard to fly around like that if it weren't.”

“Yep,” Yuya replied, getting off the dragon, “But lets not forget about the duel itself. I activate Whip Snake's effect!” He the announced as the snake in question swung a pendulum in front of Inferno Wing. “So I can target Inferno Wing to swap her current Attack and Defense points for the turn!”

“Hang on, I-” Jaden grabbed his new action card but cut himself off when he saw it, “Oh, uh, never mind.” He then stated upon seeing that, unlike the last card, this one can't negate the monster effect.

**Evil HERO Blazing Inferno Wing... ATK:4300 - > 2100**

**Evil HERO Blazing Inferno Wing... DEF:2100 - > 4300**

Odd-Eyes and White Wing then showed up from around a corner joining Yuya as he turned to them, “Hey you two, just in time. White Wing, mind shows us your best act, Whip Snake here will be a perfect assistant for you today.”

“Best act?” Jaden noted before smiling, “So I guess her effect gets to come into play now.”

“Not exactly.” Yuya replied, “Unless you consider being a tuner monster to be a type of effect that is.”

“Wait, Tuner monster?” Jaden asked, eyes widening, “But that means, your going to Synchro summon now?”

“Yep, glad to see your familiar with it.” Yuya said, “That means I don't have to worry about explaining it and just tune my Level 4 'White Wing Magician' to my Level 4 'Preformapal Whip Snake'!” He the announced as the Magician turned into 4 rings of light that the snake went into. “ _Hero's blade that sets forth unyielding light! Here and now, along with a flash, awaken! Synchro Summon! Appear, Level 8! Magical Swordsman of Awakening!_ _Enlightenment Paladin_ _!_ ” Yuya then chanted as a pillar of light then appeared and a white clad magical swordsman stepped out from it.

**Enlightenment Paladin...Attribute:Dark, Type:Spellcaster, Level:8, ATK:2500 DEF:2000**

“Since White Wing was used as Synchro Material, she banishes herself,” Yuya stated, “But at the same time, using her for my paladin's summoning lets me use his effect to add any spell card from my graveyard back to my hand. So I'll grab back my 'Pendulum Call'.”

' _Okay, so while he can't use White Wing for another Synchro summon, he now has a way to grab more Pendulum Magicians from his deck, and potentially use them for more Synchro, Xyz, or Contact Fusion plays...._ ' Jaden thought to himself. ' _Are all Pro's from Pendulum this good or is he just exceptional?_ '

“Battle!” Yuya then declared, “'Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon' attacks 'Evil HERO Blazing Inferno Wing'! Spiral Strike Burst!” The red dragon roared at the declaration, leaping up into the air to launch some red fire right at the fusion monster.

“Hold on!” Jaden interrupted, “Forget about 'Fallen Skyscraper'? Since your monsters has more attack points then mine, Inferno Wing Gains 1000 attack points for the battle!”

**Evil HERO Blazing Inferno Wing... ATK:2100 - > 3100**

“Go, Inferno Wing! Ultimate Inferno Blast!” Jaden then declared as his monster retaliated, creating a large ball of white fire to hurl at the stream of fire from Odd-Eyes's attack.

“I activate an action spell!” Yuya said putting the card in his duel disk, “'Double Attack'! This action spell dose what the name implies, doubles Odd-Eyes's attack!”

“Oh, I guess you didn't forget about it then.” The Hero duelist said as some sweat begun to from on his brow. At the same time, the fire from Odd-Eyes's attack grew in intensity, widening as it pushed back the sphere of white fire, eventually dispersing it causing Inferno Wing to brace herself against the flames of the attack.

**Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon... ATK:2500 - > 5000**

“That's not all.” The Pendulum duelist said, “Remember what I said earlier about when Odd-Eyes battles a monster? The damage-”

“Is doubled.” The Hero duelist finished.

“Yep.” Yuya said as green spheres begun to light up on Odd-Eyes's body, “Let's do this Odd-Eyes! Reaction Force!” As he finished that, the Fires from Odd-Eyes got even more intense, easily pushing the fusion monster down to the ground and creating a shock-wave that knocked Jaden back several feet.

**Jaden's LP: 5400 - > 1600**

' _Darn it!_ ' He thought to himself as he got up, ' _I need time to recover, and he still has 2 more attacks._ ' He then grabbed the action card he had in his hand “I activate the action spell, 'Damage Draw', Because I took 2000 or more points in battle damage, I can draw 2 cards!” He then said drawing 2 cards, “Furthermore, since my monster was destroyed I can activate my trap! 'Hero Signal'! So I can now summon a level 4 or lower Elemental HERO from my Deck! Appear Clayman!” Appearing in the 'sky' was a spotlight showing an 'H' on it, and as if on cue, a Golem like monster appeared on Jaden's field, crouching down in defense position.

**Elemental HERO Clayman... Attribute:Earth, Type:Warrior, Level:4, ATK:800 DEF:2000**

' _Clayman can only take one attack._ ' Jaden thought to himself, ' _I better hurry._ ' He then dashed off hoping to grab another action card.

“'Enlightenment Paladin', attack Clayman!” Yuya then declared, prompting the Synchro monster to rush toward the hero. One slash of a magic sword latter, and Clayman exploded. “When 'Enlightenment Paladin' destroys a monster in battle, you take damage equal to it's original attack points!” The paladin then pointed it's sword at Jaden, causing it to glow.

“So it has Flame Wingman's super power? Joy.” Jaden muttered to himself as he saw an action card. Jaden leaped to the action card just as a magic burst of energy shot out of the sword. Jaden grabbed the action card, but at the same time, got hit by the magic attack, casing him to tumble and hit a wall.

**Jaden's LP: 1600 - > 800**

“You okay, Jaden?” Yuya asked.

“I'm fine.” The duelist in question replied, “Continue.”

“Okay then.” Yuya said, looking a little more worried, “Dark Rebellion, direct attack! Rebellion Lightning Disobey!” He then stated as the Xyz monster roared, lightning forming around it's fangs as it charged at Jaden.

“I activate an action spell, 'Evasion'!” Jaden countered, “I negate your attack!” The dragon immediately started putting the breaks on it's attack, stopping a few feet in front of Jaden before returning to Yuya's side.

' _Okay, that's all three monsters._ ' Jaden thought to himself, ' _So I survived this round. But I got to think of something fast, else I'm toast next turn. Could the Neo-Spacians get me out of this? Probably not, The big guy hasn't gotten back to me yet and without him, the best of them is Grand Mole, who can't hold back three monsters at once, especially if one of them can be summoned as easily as that Odd-Eyes. Not to mention he can get 2 more of his Magicians on his next turn to summon with it and... wait, did he even use the pendulum effects of the Magicians he has in the pendulum zones yet?_ ' His breathing started to pick up as he realized even more about Yuya's strength, ' _Plus he still hasn't used 2 of his dragons. And if Odd-Eyes has an extension to it's power in the form of Beast-Eyes, who's to say his other's don't have more to them as well? I'm almost out of the duel and he's barely gotten started!_ '

“Okay pal, I think you need to take a break and calm down right now.” Yuya then said.

Jaden blinked in surprise, “Why do you think that is necessary?”

“Well, for starters, there is the fact that you're shaking pretty badly right now.” The Entertainment duelist replied, prompting to Jaden to look at his had to see... that he was right, he was shaking pretty badly. “I saw a hint of what type of training Duel Academy gave it's students. And the way Sora described it doesn't paint a pretty picture either.” Yuya then continued, “So chances are, right now, your still treating this as though loosing will cause you to go 2-dimensional.”

“What? Come on.” The Hero duelist replied, “I know you guys aren't going to do that to me.”

Yuya shook his head, “But that doesn't mean you will have no problems avoiding the thought of that as a possibility. After all, you probably haven't been in a low-stakes duel since you left duel academy. And I know there is at least one instructor IN duel academy that has little-to-no issue turning his students into cards should they under-preform. So when was the last time you were able to loose an actual duel with no real consequences?”

“I-” Jaden stopped himself as he thought about it, “I... don't know.”

“See what I mean then?” Yuya asked, “So yeah, were taking a break, so you can take some deep breaths, calm down and remind yourself that this isn't a a duel for your life, it's one your suppose to have fun with. Oh, and umm, because It is still my turn and the timer is disabled I can just sit here without even leaving my battle phase for as long as I want. So you don't really have to many choices here.” He then stated as he sat down on a nearby piece of rubble that apparently made a good enough seat for him.

Jaden got a bit of a chuckle out of that... it was true after all, with his current hand, the only thing he could do to activate anything on his opponent's turn was getting an action card and hoping that it had a good effect. But Yuya had 3 monsters, all of which probably being faster then he was, that could intercept and stop him from getting one, while he had no monsters to back-him up in getting one. “Okay then,” he said as he took a few deep breaths and begun willing himself to stop shaking. It took him about a minute or 2, but he eventually got to the point where he could look at his hand and see it not shaking. He figured that was good enough for now, sure his heart was still racing, but that may not have been the whole fight or flight thing, it could be something else. “So, dose You Show offer therapy treatments or something for his students here?”

Yuya blinked a bit at that question, “That's a good question.” He then put his hand to his chin saying, “I know we don't have anything like that here in Pendulum, but most of the students in the fusion branch are people who defected from Duel Academy, so I guess dad might have set something up over there to help with that.” A thought then occurred to him, “Should probably make some time in my schedule for that myself now that I think about it.” He then mumbled to himself so that no one would hear.

Syuzo's voice came on over the intercom saying “I'll see what he have on that.”

Jaden stumbled a bit when the intercom came on, “Oh, right, forgot we had an audience. Guess we shouldn't keep them waiting any longer, should we?”

“Only if you feel alright to continue.” Yuya answered.

Jaden took one more deep breath and said, “I think I should be good for now.”

“Okay then.” Yuya said getting back up from his makeshift chair, “Then I'll set one card and end my turn.”

“It's My turn, I draw!” Jaden said as he drew another card. “Next I'll play 'Convert Contact'! Since I have no monsters on my field, I can send a Neo-Spacian from my hand and one from my deck to the graveyard to draw 2 more cards.”

“I'll chain my trap card,” Yuya interrupted, revealing his set card, “'Dragon's Bind'! With this, I target a Dragon-type monster I control with an maximum of 2500 attack and defense, I choose Dark Rebellion!” A white glow appeared around the Xyz Dragon for a bit as Yuya explained, “because of this, now for as long as this card is out, neither player can special summon monsters who original attack is equal to or less then Dark Rebellion's.”

“Well, there went my first idea.” Jaden muttered, “With 'Convert Contact', I'll send the Glow Moss in my hand and the Dark Panther in my deck to the graveyard!” He continued, “Please let this be good.” Jaden quietly muttered to himself, before drawing the two cards. ' _Now.... what can I do here?_ ' He then thought to himself, before sensing a presence coming from his extra deck. ' _Huh, what's that?_ ' He then checked his extra deck and got wide eyes when he saw a card that certainly wasn't in there before.

Yuya's eyes narrowed as he saw Jaden's reaction and felt something off. He then turned to his dragons and said, “Let's go guys.” The dragon's nodded as Odd-Eyes picked Yuya up and begun sprinting off in a random direction for an action card.

Jaden smirked as he heard the voice of this new monster and said, “Okay then, I'll release you.” His eyes then glowed gold once again and a dark aura became visible around him. “First up. Because I used Shadow Grave's fusion summoning effect earlier this duel, I can now summon one level 5 or higher HERO monster without any tributes. Come Forth! 'Evil HERO Malicious Edge'!” The declared monster then emerged onto Jaden field, looking ready to slice up anyone in his way.

**Evil HERO Malicious Edge... Attribute:Earth, Type:Fiend, Level:7, ATK:2600 DEF:1800**

“First up, that 'Dragon's Bind' has got to go.” Jaden said to himself, “Battle! Malicious Edge, attack Dark Rebellion! Needle Burst!” The monster obeyed firing large needles right at the Xyz Dragon. At this moment Yuya leaped off of Odd-Eyes and grabbed an action card, but grit his teeth at seeing that it couldn't help him right now. The needles tore through Dark Rebellion, causing it to explode in a shower of light.

**Yuya's LP: 2000 – > 1900**

“When the monster targeted by 'Dragon's Bind' leaves the field, the trap itself is destroyed.” Yuya reluctantly states, as his trap card vanished.

Jaden then moved in to where Yuya was now and stated, “Which means you can't stop me from playing this.” He then states as he grabs two cards from his hand, “I discard 'Wicked Fusion' from my hand to activate a quick-play spell, 'Super Dark Fusion'!”

Yuya blinked at that, “'Super Dark Fusion'?” he repeated as he then felt a whirlwind begun to pick up around the dueling field.

“This card lets me preform a dark fusion using monsters on either side of the field.” Jaden stated as the wind got stronger. “So I'll fuse my 'Evil HERO Malicious Edge' with your 'Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon'!”

“Odd-Eyes!” Yuya then shouted as the wind picked up the dragon from it's spot and threw it into a darkened fusion vortex alongside the Evil HERO.

“ _Fallen Hero,_ ” Jaden then chanted, “ _Merge your might with this resurrecting force, and take on it's power to make all others submit before you!_ ” The new card the ejected itself out of Jaden's duel disk for him to play on the field, “ _Dark Fusion! Come Forth! Evil HERO Supreme King Uyikx!_ ” A new monster came out of the vortex, sporting black full body armor with gold trims, that looked stylized to resemble that of a medieval knight, but with it's helmet also seeming to function as a crown of some sort.

**Evil HERO Supreme King Uyikx... Attribute:Dark, Type:Fiend/Pendulum, Level:7, ATK:2500 DEF:2000**

“No, way!” Sora exclaimed, “A Pendulum-Fusion monster!? How, or when did he get that? He left way before Duel Academy started making Pendulums.”

“I guess for when...” Yuzu stated, “... right now?”

“Well, this was unexpected.” Yuya said, before smiling, “Well then, Lets just see what this new power of your can do then shall we.”

Jaden nodded at that, “First up, because I preformed a dark fusion, 'Fallen Skyscraper' lets me draw a card.” he then said drawing again. “And upon summon, Uyikx gains half the attack points of your Odd-Eyes since I used it as fusion material.” He continued as the monster gained a dark aura for a brief second.

**Evil HERO Supreme King Uyikx... ATK:2500 - > 3750**

“Furthermore, I haven't ended my battle phase yet.” He then said smirking. “Uyikx, attack 'Enlightenment Paladin'! Supreme Saber Slash!” Both the Fusion and Synchro monsters drew swords, Uyikx's being coated in a Dark Aura, and ran at each other in a clash. The clash lasted for about a second, before the Evil Hero overpowered the Paladin, and cut the monster in half.

**Yuya's LP: 1900 – > 650**

“Now lets keep going.” Jaden then said, “At the end of my battle phase, if Uyikx destroyed a monster in battle, I can summon a random monster from your extra deck to my field!”

“From my extra deck!?” Yuya asked/repeated.

“Go! Victory Annexing!” Jaden then declared as a dark beam of energy came out of his monster's sword and pulled a ball of light to his field, then then grew into a monster shape and hit the field. It didn't take long for Jaden to see that he grabbed one of the dragons he sensed before. This one having a plant motif all around it.

**Starving Venom Fusion Dragon...** **Attribute:Dark, Type:Dragon, Level:8, ATK:2800 DEF:2000**

“Tsk.” Jaden then muttered when he saw the monster, “I was hoping to grab that Odd-Eyes.” He the sighed and shrugged, “Aw well, at least I got one of your dragons. And if it leaves the field now it will be banished, so I won't have to worry about anything from this guy during this duel.”

Yuya smiled at that, “I wouldn't be so sure about that.”

“Well, Lets hope you have a response right now. Because after a monster is summoned with Uyikx's effect, you take damage equal to half the summoned monster's attack points.” Jaden then responded, as his Evil HERO created a ball of dark energy.

“That's fine.” Yuya said surprising Jaden as his monster fired that magical ball at Yuya. “Because I activate the action spell, 'Acceleration'!” He then answered as he bent over backward to dodge the ball and let it go over him. “That action spell reduces effect damage to 0.” He then finishes.

“Oh, I see then.” Jaden then comments as he looked back at his hand, “I'll play the spell card 'Reload', this card shuffles my hand back into my deck and lets me re-draw.” Upon doing so, he then smirked and said “I now throw down 2 face-downs and end my turn.”

“Then it's my turn, I draw!” Yuya declared, drawing a card. Upon seeing it, his eyes widened. “So, your letting me use this card?” he then mumbled to himself, before shrugging and saying, “Yeah, I guess I can't blame you for not wanting to be seeing your pal on that end of the field.”

Jaden raised an eyebrow at seeing this, ' _Who is he talking to? I don't see any duel spirit nearby him._ '

“First things first.” Yuya said as his roller skates kicked in again, and he sped off.

“That's right,” Jaden said realizing something, “He needs discard fodder for 'Pendulum Call', and action cards can be used for that.” He then smirked and said, “So we'll just have to stop that. Uyikx! Starve Venom! Go!” The Monsters obeyed, Uyikx trying to stop Yuya directly, causing the entertainer to duck and weave around the monster and the battle field.

Meanwhile Starve Venom slashed at a building, causing rubble to fall in Yuya's path. Looking to where Starve Venom attacked the building, Yuya smiled, turned the roller skates to full speed and zipped his way up into the hole Starve Venom made. In about one second, the lights dimmed, and two spotlights shown down on the hole with Yuya standing up visible in it, “LADIES AND GENTELMEN!” he then proclaimed.

“Note to self, ask how he dose the spotlight thing latter.” Jaden said to himself.

“At this moment, we seem to be at the climax of the Duel!” Yuya called out like he was the announcer talking to hundreds if not thousands of people, “Both of us have not even 1000 life points left, and my opponent here has two powerful monsters out! But I now plan to bring out a monster to help decide this match in one final strike!”

“Bring it on!” Jaden challenged.

“Sure thing,” Yuya said, “First up, I'll need the star of my deck to return, and with my pendulum scales, that can happen in a snap!” he said, snapping his fingers for emphasis “I Pendulum Summon!”

' _Wait, he's not using 'Pendulum Call' first?_ ' Jaden thought, as he saw 'Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon' return to Yuya's field. ' _Either that is a misplay or he doesn't need to summon his magicians. Why do I feel like it is the latter?_ '

“Consider this next move to be inspired by you Jaden.” Yuya then said.

“By me?” Jaden repeated.

Yuya then smirked and sent his action card to the graveyard saying, “I discard the 'Mirror Barrier' action card in order to play this card.” As he said that, a whirlwind then begun to pick up around the battle field.

' _This wind._ ' Jaden noticed, ' _No, it couldn't be... he couldn't have that card, could he? I only got my version because of both my connection to duel spirits and the intense training of Duel Academy towards fusion summoning._ ' The wind begun to pick up stronger, ' _Even if his own power toward duel spirits is enough for that end, there shouldn't be any way that anyone from outside of Fusion should be able to go as high as he needs to obtain THAT card. Right?_ '

“I activate the quick-play spell, 'Super Polymerization'!” Yuya then announced as the card appeared on his field.

' _Syrus was right..._ ' Jaden thought to himself, ' _even thinking it is bad enough for the universe to prove you wrong._ '

“This card can let me fusion summon using monsters on either players side of the field.” Yuya announced as the fancy fusion vortex appeared behind him, “So I'll reclaim 'Starving Venom Fusion Dragon', and merge it with my 'Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon'!”

“He's merging the Dragons!?” Jaden said out loud, as he saw the fusion dragon sprint off on it's own accord into the vortex alongside Odd-Eyes.

Yuya then closed his eyes and began to chant, “ _Dragon with dual colored eyes_ _! Become one with the_ _poisonous dragon_ _. Be the power that leads to supremacy!_ ” He then opened his eyes again, revealing that one of them has turned purple, “ _Fusion Summon! Appear! Level 10! Dragon with gem-like eyes of kindness! The_ _Supreme King Violet Dragon! Odd-Eyes Venom Dragon_ _!_ ” Coming out of the vortex was another dragon, mostly purple and white in appearance, with some floral theme but looking a lot nicer then Starving Venom did.

**Odd-Eyes Venom Dragon... Attribute:Dark, Type:Dragon/Pendulum, Level:10, ATK:3300 DEF:2500**

Jaden stood frozen looking at the dragon, feeling it's aura. Unlike Beast-Eyes, which felt like just an extension of Odd-Eyes, this dragon truly felt like we was dealing with both of it's fusion materials in one body. Only now the strength seemed to be almost double or triple the sum of the strength what the dragons had individually. Not counting the large dragon he saw the other day, he couldn't think of any monster he met that felt THAT strong, and this was just merging TWO of the dragons. If Yuya decided to merge all 4 of his dragons.... well, Jaden wasn't quite so sure he could imagine how much power that would be.

“Lets Go, Odd-Eyes!” Yuya then exclaimed as he jumped onto the dragon back as it flew up. “Venom Dragon's effect activates, until the end of this turn, Odd-Eyes gains the attack of your monster!”

“Say what!?” Jaden exclaimed as the dragon stopped it's accent and glowed white, the orbs on it's wings releasing light that begun to resemble a flower in bloom, and it's attack points climbed.

**Odd-Eyes Venom Dragon... ATK:3300 - > 7050**

During the light show, Yuya jumped off of his dragon's back to grab another action card, and smiled, “Odd-Eyes Venom Dragon, ATTACK!” he then declared as the dragon nosedived toward the only monster of Jaden's field.

Jaden took a brief glance at his monster to see it nod. It then leaped up into the air straight towards the dragon, sword at the ready. The Pendulum-Fusion dragon released a burst of light from it's mouth, aimed straight at the incoming Evil Hero. The beam hit the monster who struggled to power through, both side holding firm. “I activate a face-down card!” Jaden the shouted, as one of his two cards revealed themselves. “'Battle Fusion'! Since an attack was declared involving a fusion monster I control, this card will give my monster attack points equal to what your monster currently has.” As he said that, his Supreme King monster was able to breakthrough the stream of light. Rising higher in the air, it's Dark Aura flared into a full on miasma, as it coated around the sword, making it more then double it's original size.

**Evil HERO Supreme King Uyikx... ATK:3750 - > 10800**

“Nice play,” Yuya stated as he saw the Pendulum-Fusion monster come down on his violet dragon. However, the dragon the caught the 'blade' with one claw/hand and tossed the Evil HERO aside. “But, not good enough,” Yuya then stated, “After 'Battle Fusion' resolves, I start a new chain with this, the action spell 'Encore'!” He then continued, “This card lets me activate the effect of any action spell in my graveyard.”

“Wait, any action spell?” Jaden repeated/asked.

“Any action spell.” Yuya confirmed, “And the one I choose to use, is the action spell 'Double Attack'! So 'Odd-Eyes Venom Dragon's attack points go up again.” As he said that The flower-esq lights on the dragon then shined brighter and grew larger. The Supreme King Violet Dragon then roared as it's attack points climbed up again.

**Odd-Eyes Venom Dragon... ATK:7050 - > 14100**

The Dragon then created even more light in it's mouth, and fired off another stream right at Uyikx. ' _Darn it,_ ' Jaden then thought, ' _I guess that leaves me with no other choice_ '. The stream then connected, firing right through the Evil HERO and making the building behind it start to collapse. However, before it got to far down, a column of darkness flared up from the base of the building, knocking it back and away from the duelists, once the column dissipated, Uyikx was floating up in the middle of where it once was, Aura stronger then it was before.

Yuya blinked at seeing the monster in it's current state, “What just happened?”

“I activated my trap,” Jaden then replied as his other set card revealed itself, “'Final Fusion'. Since we were still in the battle step, this card can call off the attack, and the deal damage to both players life points the combined attack total of both of our monsters.”

“Wait, both their combined attack points?” Sora repeated, “but isn't that, like, twenty-five-thousand right now?”

Yuzu did some quick math in her head. “Not quite, but with both of them under one thousand life points, and that damage being as high as it is. I don't think being 100 points off really matters right now.”

Yuya smiled as he looked at Jaden, “You know what this means right? What will determine the winner of the duel?”

Jaden nodded, a smile on his face as well, “Yep.” was his reply, as he then started moving. Running and going through the whole action field faster then a normal human should be able to.

“The Action cards.” Yuzu and Sora said in unison, as they saw Yuya activate his roller skates again and speed off. Now out on the search, a dark aura like Jaden's appeared around Yuya's body as his speed went up higher then it did earlier in the duel.

The two fusion monsters stared at each other one exactly one second, before charging straight back into battle, both of them constantly striking and blocking, looking for an opening and trying not to give one.

A small rectangular object caught Jaden's eye. He smiled and went in to grab it.

At the same time, Yuya spotted an action card as well, and made his move toward it.

The two monsters eventually somehow created a shock wave that caused them both to fly back a good dozen or so yards. They then charged up another attack, Uyikx putting more of it's aura in it's sword, Venom dragon creating a giant ball of light, and went at each other again.

The next few things happened within milliseconds of each other. First Yuya grabbed his action card. Then Jaden grabbed his action card. Finally, the ball of light and the sword of darkness from the two Pendulum-Fusion monsters collided, creating an explosion that tore through the field, creating a massive smoke screen obscuring the entire field from view.

Eventually, the smoke began to clear, both monsters became visible again, and panting heavily. The Duelists (with their eyes back to normal and auras no longer visible) that summoned the monsters also became visible through all the smoke, standing next to their monsters, smiles on there faces. Then, one of the buildings began to vanish, and then another and another. The Action field was turning off, but neither duelist looked surprised.

“So, what action card did you get?” Jaden asked Yuya.

“'Battle Change',” Yuya said as he held up the card before it vanished. “It lets me redirect an attack you throw at me,” he then let out a small chuckle, “But you weren't the one declaring the attack, and there was no other targets for it to be re-directed to if you were.”

Jaden let out a small laugh, “Hey, at least your action card wasn't rendered useless by your own trap card.” He then showed the card in his hand before it vanished, “Negating attacks by 'Final Fusion' renders 'Miracle' kinda useless, though with the damage your attack would have done. It wouldn't have been helpful anyway.” At this point, both of the duelist's monsters collapsed onto the ground, before vanishing with the rest of the solid vision field.

**Yuya's LP: 650 – > 0**

**Jaden's LP: 800 - > 0**

Both duelists fell down onto a knee and started laughing as Sora, Yuzu and Syuzo all came in. “So, what do you think of the You Show Duel School's entertainment dueling?” Syuzo then asked Jaden.

“Awesome.” Jaden answered smile never leaving his face, “Are all duels in Pendulum like this?” He then asked.

“Pfft, I wish.” Sora stated, “Most of the people here are total lame-Os. Sure they have some good gimmicks, but for every 1 interesting one, you are bound to find like, 5 more pathetic ones.”

“Well, anyway. I think this type of dueling might just be what I needed.” Jaden then said, “So how hard would it be for me to enroll here?”

“Depends on a couple things,” Yuzu sated, “But first, maybe you two should rest up. You both look exhausted.”

Yuya gave a small yawn, “Yeah I could go for a nap.” he then agreed.

As the people left the room, one figured remained in there. A white duel spirit saw the whole duel, but stayed out of sight from the two individuals that could see him. If it had a mouth in it's base form, it would be smiling right now. “Good to see you finally taking steps to fix the issue Jaden.” It then said, “It's about time you started having fun in your duels again.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What? Did any of you think the title was referring to Zarc? I know at least a couple people on fanfic.net did. Kinda ironic that I ended it like this, since part of the reason why I had the GX section split was because I thought a draw or inconclusive result wouldn't be good for a one-shot... but this extended to be more then just a one-shot and I was able to change the conditions of the duel to a much more low-stakes one.  
> Hope you enjoyed as this concludes Arc-Ved protagonists (through if you are reading everything in the order presented in the series you still have the bonus of Reluctant Choice to go), my daily uploads are almost at and end.


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